A Golden Light in the Dark Abyss: The Path of A Hero
by wolfy1.29.13
Summary: The Great Mushroom War was the apocalypse. The human race was thought to be extinct, and a thousand years later the last human is found. In a world where he is so different, who can make the last child of man belong? Meet the Hero of the land of Ooo, a different Finn. AU! Not a Finnceline!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi! Okay I have other stories in different categories I REALLY need to work on, but this has been rolling around in my head and would NOT leave me alone. So, I decided to write it.

In AT, it's one thousand years after the apocalypse and humans are all mutated into the creatures of Ooo. Yet a human suddenly appears. Where did Finn come from? Ever since Susan Strong, there's been the question of whether she's a human or a hymoon. This is my theory behind it all.

Also, this is not a Finnceline fic! This is the main question in my head after I deduced my theory; If Finn wasn't found by Margret and Joshua, how would his life as the possibly last human be different?

Let me know what you think, I hope you like it.

Read, and Review!

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It started so long ago in the Land of Ooo. But what feels like many years can easily seem to pass in minutes. What also seems so little a difference can mean a world of change. It started in a place no one even knows is there yet. Deep in the candy tree forests is an eroded sewer gate, hidden by the lands shrubbery. Inside is a world, a civilization yet known to thrive. Its people now are in turmoil as of what to do.

Since the dark age of The Great Mushroom War, the populace of Earth was mutated to the ancestors of what roams this land today. Every living being, here and unborn or dead, has at least the tiniest fraction of their very distant relatives, the humans. However, the creatures that reside here hold the highest connection to their ancestors. The Hymoons were directly descended from the last group of surviving humans. They had been near where the sewer is present day and managed to survive the blast of the atomic bombs nuking the planet long enough to find shelter, but not to avoid their DNA alteration.

Being exposed to the sewage and underground dwellings they mutated and eventually adapted to the fish-like people the Hymoons are now. Though they didn't know they had mutated originally, and naturally sought to repopulate the planet for the human race but feared to leave the safe haven of the underground lest another attack kill them. As the thousand years passed they became less and less civilized, forgetting their roots and letting the mutated DNA take over more. Eventually they became savages and knew only the Neanderthal ways of tribal culture, including speech.

Their young had always naturally been born with the fish-like features and distinctions that broke into sub-species categories like all races. They elected the strongest among them to be their leader until death and chose the most beautiful of women among them for his bride. The newest Shaman was a hulking monster wearing a tiger-skin hat and brown loincloth, and he overshadowed everyone. His wife was a beautiful woman who had long blonde hair to cover her face scales and the gills on her neck. She wore a dingy lion hat.

They were normal fish people, so it was a shock one day, when one child was born of their shaman leader without anything resembling their race. She looked exactly like a normal human, with blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, and was feared by the people. So feared they called for her blood, but the mother begged them to spare her new daughter as he was their leader's child too. The people begrudgingly accepted, and the child was raised of their ways. Though she may have looked so different, she was not like they're ancestors and possessed very great strength like her father, making her accepted.

While the shaman and his wife were elated that she at least had something to fit in, they feared another child be born like her. They feared the people would not accept another foreign-looking child in the community. Even if they did, what if the child was unlike his or her older sister and lacked the super strength that made her accepted?

Six years after their firstborn's birth their fears came to pass. A son looking identical to his sister when she was born, with bright blue eyes and sun-kissed locks, became the subject of the outrage by the Hymoons. Though the babe was not alone in the hate, they accused the shaman's wife of holding an accursed womb. Forever branded to bear these fearfully strange things. A year passed, and the boy showed no signs of being anything like his sister. The people could not be placated by the shaman and demanded his son and wife be executed. He however, reached a compromise and they would be banished forevermore from their long-known homeland.

The tall and growing muscular girl looked at her mother and baby brother before they left. She understood they weren't coming back and she made a secret vow in her heart that day; to one day find her little brother. Hymoons cannot live in the outside world, so her mother would die. Looking at her strange brother, the girl thought he would, and vowed to meet him again one day.

So now, a grieving mother emerges into the unknown world with her babe held close and knowing she isn't long. She knows she must find him shelter, and her one wish is that he lives. So she begins walking, hoping to find a city and hide him nearby to be found. She looked lovingly down at the boy wrapped in a blue blanket and naked other then the bear hat she had made for him like her sister's cat hat.

After hours and endless hours of walking in the opposite direction from her homeland, the grieving mother happens upon what she is unaware to be a merchant city. She stands on a cliff overlooking the small city and sees that the run-down state reminds her of home. She puts her baby in nearby bushes and kisses him once more before walking off in a deeper part of the woods never to be seen again.

After his mother leaves the little boy begins crying for her to come back, but she ignores his cries for some reason he can't understand. So he wriggles out of the blue blanket wrapped around him and toddles out of the bushes to look for her. He looks around frantically for her, tears and snot streaking his beet red face as he cries desperately. In his stumbling, the boy fails to see he nears the cliff and he eventually steps over the edge in his blindness. The boy wails desperately but he only tumbles down the steep hill and lands unforgivably on the trash below, for the cliff is directly above the city's dump.

The boy wails, frightened, alone, and cold. Just then his tummy rumbles, signaling he hasn't been fed in hours. He looks around and finds a chunk of bread near him that's slightly burnt. Luckily he's old enough and has a few teeth to chew with. He has lived in the sewer among the trash all his little life, so his tiny mind feels safe in this somewhat similar place. After finishing his food, he decides to lie down and sleep despite still being cold, alone, and frightened.

He could never be aware that if only his mother had taken the completely opposite direction, she would have come upon the more green forests near the candy kingdom. Never would he have known that she would have dropped him, hearing people in the forest. He still would have crawled away looking for her, but the people would ignore him. He would lose his balance after going to the bathroom on a leaf and fall into his own mess. Being ignored for three days while he wailed at the discomfort, until a talking dog couple would be kind enough to have taken him in after happening upon him.

He would never have his life as Finn the Human, Hero of Ooo. Never will he receive the love and compassion his dog-family would have given him. He spends the first year after his abandonment living wildly in the dump's filth until he is one day brave enough to venture into the nearby city. However, even there he is alien to the city's people. They immediately isolate and fear the equally scared little boy. They try to rid themselves of him, but the boy only wishes to be accepted and persists.

After being thrown violently back where he started, the boy stays away for a few days in fear of another beating. However, he is brave and smart so he once again ventures to the city but stays on the outskirts. There, it becomes common practice for him to hide in the shadows all throughout the day in trying to learn of the people, and then travel back to his home at night. At the tender age of two-and-a-half, the boy has learned very much of the strange peoples ways. He goes as far as to dress his nakedness in a ratty blanket around his waist like a toga with frayed a rope for a belt.

He knows the basics enough of their language to communicate, even though poorly. With all the knowledge he has learned he dares to once again venture to the heart of the city to display his assimilation and hopefully gain acceptance. His hopes are for naught. The people have spread roomers that he is a monster and are outraged he would dare to be like them. They beat him and chase him out, but the boy is persistent and comes back day after day to learn even more from the shadows. He is eventually found after a week and now he is not safe anywhere in the city limits.

That doesn't stop the boy; he is determined to find love despite all the pain. The people call him Demon Brat and, knowing what a name is, he begins to think of that as his title. Seeing the fine things and foods of the city compared to that of his home, the boy thinks that if he has these, then he will be more like the people. Thus, he begins stealing food and small trinkets day in and day out while learning. He adapts to outwit the townspeople, grows more cunning and wise. Soon he is four years old, with a half-decent vocabulary and horribly primary, merely basic, understanding of the world.

Our story sadly begins.

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While the boy is struggling, a near thousand-year-old vampire is struggling as well. Marceline the Vampire Queen has struggled in a similar way to the poor boy; She and one other were also survivors of The Great Mushroom War, like his family. She was abandoned by her father in the middle of a ruined city and he left, seemingly, to not be seen again. However she was found. Found by a slowly deteriorating Simon Petrikov as he fought a losing battle with dark magic, her best friend.

Simon took a seven-year-old Little Marcie with him in the aftermath of the nuclear bomb's crash. They traveled all throughout the newly created, but yet to be, Land of Ooo and bonded. He was her family, and she his. She laughs to herself now, thinking that if it weren't for her he probably wouldn't have lasted nearly as long.

Simon had bought a dark magical artifact from a dock worker in Scandinavia, a crown. He was an archeologist of some kind, Marceline knew. From the moment he jokingly put the crown on his head, he had doomed himself; that's what he told her. The crown's magic slowly poisoned his mind and changed him to something not human. He was already mostly changed in body when she came along.

She remembers him making up songs and her love of music is because of that. She even turned her ancient family heirloom into a base guitar. At the word family, Marceline thinks both painfully and fondly of Simon Petrikov, but also heatedly of her real father. Marceline is the half-demon/half-vampire (now) daughter of the ruler of the Nightosphere, Hunson Abadeer. It had been her mother's passing right after the war that had caused Hunson to thoughtlessly abandon her, expel her from their home in the Nightosphere. That's how she survived; she hadn't even been there. While the crown's magic made Simon semi-immortal, along with insane, to keep him alive throughout the war.

Though he can still die from starvation or a fatal wound; poison, harsh weather, old age, and disease have no effect on the Ice King. That's who he is now; the Ice King. It had been hardest for Marceline watching him slowly forget her as quickly as he'd come to know her. Then he'd completely lost it; he woke up one morning to freak out at the sight of her and fly off. Despite that a part of him must remember her, because once every few years he will find her no matter where she is in Ooo. Even if his reasons for visiting are nonsensical, he'll track her to the ends of the Earth.

When that happens, she has to start all over again in a new home, and in healing the hurt. She also breaks down every time the anniversary of him finding her comes around. She knows the date, because it was exactly two weeks and four days after her mother had died. On that day, she finds the closest secluded spot from wherever she is and cries. A lot of years have passed and she's done so much.

She's adventured every known dark corner and seen everything there is to see of the world. She's killed the Vampire King, hence her title, when she locked her father away in the Nightosphere forever, hopefully. She'll never forget the day he "wanted" to make up with her; he never cared about making up, but just wanted to know if he still had a pawn to succeed him in taking responsibility of the Nightosphere. Like that would happen.

She's met many, many people, and lost them all. She's seen countless lifetimes come and go in the near one thousand years of undead life. She's experienced hurt like no other, and felt very little happiness. What did she do wrong? Her biggest regret is not being able to save Simon, even though she was powerless and seven at the time. Her second is a tie between not being able to kill her father (damn immortality) and falling for that jerk Ash.

Not only was Ash abusive and controlling, but he literally gave away the most precious thing she had, the doll Hambo that Simon gave her when he found her. That had been when she'd truly had enough and left the sorry s-o-b. Yeah, her undead life sucked royally. Today marked nine-hundred and eighty-six years ago that Simon found her in the wreckage of the world, in that ruined city going up in flames. She'd finally managed to compose herself and decided that she needed to get some axe-grease for her base. So she picked herself up, dusted herself off, and flew to the market city she knew was near here.

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"Die you Demon! Die Brat, Die!" The man brought the crowbar down across the curled up boy's temple, evoking a sharp scream of pain from the child.

Other's joined in the sickening act, kicking, hitting, even biting and clawing at the broken little body. They'd ripped and burned off the boy's clothes, tied his hands behind his back, and tied his feet together. The restrictions so tight, his uncirculated limbs were beginning to turn purple and the ropes dyed dark red with his blood. The boy's body was always unscarred no matter how hard he was beaten, but no more. They brought out a branding iron freshly wrought from the flames.

Everyone laughed sickly at the unendingly deafening scream that tore through the filthy demon's body. Someone grabbed the boy's matted and tangled beyond recognizable locks by the roots. Then proceeded to slam his tiny, tear-streaked face repeatedly into the concrete, they intended to kill him. He would be dead this time; he'd terrorized them long enough.

"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" He screamed over and over.

"Shut up!" They all screamed before unleashing another flurry of physical assault on his starved and broken body.

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Marceline had just flown near the city when her overly-sensitive ears had picked up on a cry. The voice sounded like a child's at the top of his or her lungs screaming 'I'm sorry' repeatedly. While Marceline was not a professional heroine, she helped out wherever she could if she could. That kid definitely needed help. She flew faster and lower to the ground, scouting the city.

Before long she comes upon a large concentration of people in a mob. She can't see who, but these people are clearly beating someone. At first she thinks it's defensive. When she suddenly hears a sickeningly blood-curdling scream, her blood turns to ice. Transforming into a small vampire bat, she swoops down just above the people's heads near the middle of the mob. What she catches a glimpse of sickens her to the core; they are beating a child to death and branding him.

She can't fly in front of him fast enough, just managing to block probably yet another blow to his already bloodied head. She shifts to her normal form and shields the boy's body with her own. At her transformation the people stop and stare at her protectively outstretched arms.

"What in the heck do you think you're doing?!" She demands, glaring stakes at the people.

"Move aside!" The man closest to her (and holding the offending bat to bludgeon the boy with) demands. "The evil of this city must be purged and the child must die!" The mob shouts their agreement.

"Oh really," The air around Marceline drops by quite a few degrees, causing the closest in the circle to a three foot radius to pale. "What has this boy done that is so evil he deserves death?"

Most in the front exchange awkward glances before the offending man from before steps just a step forward with fear in his eyes. "That thing has stolen. For the last four years he has tried to steal our culture for itself, lurking in the shadows. Then, he stole our things when that didn't get to be-AHHH!" The man's short scream is cut off as Marceline drives her axe-bass into the man's neck and beheads him.

The crowd backs away several paces from the angry axe-wielding vampire. "DID YOU EVER THINK HE JUST WANTED TO FIT IN?!" She screams as angry tears burn her eyes. "NO ONE, LET ALONE A CHILD, DESERVES DEATH FOR WANTING LOVE!"

"That thing is no child! Look at it!" Exclaims the next brave one on death row.

Marceline does, and her heart leaps in her throat. This boy is a human! She can smell it in his fresh blood. Her rage is renewed as she connects the dots.

"So what, you think that because someone looks different from you that they're a monster?! Look in the freaking mirror, you psychos!" Just behind her the boy begins to moan and stir.

Marceline looks worriedly over her shoulder at him. "…p-please…please help me…"

If Marceline wasn't a vampire, the only way she'd have even known he'd spoken was the weak movement of his lips. Forgetting about the people around her, Marceline throws her axe-bass down and tenderly reaches out to touch the poor boy. She sees his feet turning a light purple and the bloodied ropes around them, his hands are tied behind his back. For the first time, Marceline takes in his condition:

His skin looks nearly black with grime, his possibly black hair is greasy and nothing but tangles, he has a fresh, blistering branding mark the size of a baseball on the left side of his chest with a cross in the middle big enough to connect all sides of the circle, His face and stomach are so sunken in from starvation that he looks like skin draped over nothing but bare bone, his head is bleeding badly, his body is littered with multiple bruises and severe cuts, his skin is slightly singed and in some parts charred, and the boy is shivering while lying there naked.

Marceline feels sick just from the sight and the overpowering smell only clinches her already churning stomach. She presses a hand to her mouth as she forces the bile down, leaving a disgusting burning taste unpleasantly in her mouth. The mob takes her inattentiveness to their advantage and multiple people move to advance on her turned back. She has inhuman reflexes and a sharp medieval dated weapon by her side, so she's quick to pick said weapon up and whirl around to watch the blood spray from two delved chests and one beheaded neck at a diagonal slash.

The bodies fall to the ground with a thud to join the first in a heap at her feet. The Vampire Queen hisses with a feral note of disgust and spits on the bodies. Looking to the mob with a deathly, murderously intent glare in her now red eyes, Marceline smiles a twisted smile then bares her fangs. The whiter then sheets mob scatters in minutes with screams of pure terror. They're smart if it only took four dead bodies to convince them. Normally, it takes at least ten to fifteen for such a crowd to scatter.

Putting the axe across her back, Marceline kneels on one knee to the broken boy and, as gently as she can, scoops him into her arms. Without a moment's hesitation, she takes off rocketing for the only place she can think of with enough science medical and junk to help the near-dead kid, the Candy Kingdom. In a matter of minutes flying as fast as she can, Marceline flies through the window of King Bubblegum's throne room. She sees she's interrupting the Royal Family's play time. Their eight-year-old daughter on the floor with toys gasps happily at seeing the vampire.

The King and Queen, look shocked at her entrance, twice so when they see her charge, and then grim when they get a good look at him. With a nod to Peppermint Butler, the king bids him to escort his daughter to her room. The queen rushes to Marceline, and looks over the boy in her medically professional mode.

"Bring him to the lab, Marcie. Talk on the way." She orders, Marceline is already ahead of her. She gives the gummy royals a very brief and angry rundown of what went on and the Queen and King are both appalled but ecstatic that the last human has been discovered.

"I'm telling you right now, no experiments on this kid." She looks deadly over at the science-loving queen.

"Not until he's properly healed."

"No. Never. You can take blood and maybe some whatever else samples, but you lay one weird science thingy, in the name of 'testing something for the good of science', near him and I can't guarantee you'll live for five seconds after. Are we clear Margret?" The queen just pouts, ignoring the completely serious death threat like a cool breeze.

"Fine, I guess I'll have to make do with samples." She smirks as the vampire lays the boy on a medical table. "Never knew you to be the mommy-type, Marcie." The Vampire Queen's withering glare doesn't faze her.

"I'm not." Marcie growls. "But those sick blee-blops shouldn't do this," She gestures with an arm to the boy, "To a small, defenseless child." The king and queen gravely nod as the queen begins working on the boy.

Marceline sits in a nearby chair, observing. She can't help but smirk as, while she's working, the queen is preserving blood, skin, hair, and any other 'samples' she can. The queen loves her science thing. After four hours the boy is sedated, stitched up, and bandaged heavily. They made documents of all of his injuries and got to work analyzing all the samples. Some test revealed that the kid was just barely four and it set everyone's teeth on edge.

Marceline looks longingly over to the poor boy, currently in a hospital gown and scrub pants underneath a painfully white blanket. He's still filthy, but after she gives him some Magical Cyclops eye-goop he'll be as good as new. Marceline gives the queen and king the full story instead of her brief, one sentence summary. Needless to say, they we're even more so appalled. The queen was scarily delighted in the fact that Marceline had scared them all cramless, even more when she said she'd killed five of them. Her evil crackling was proof of this.

"Uh, hey Margie, you okay?" Marceline nervously pokes her in the shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. I just keep thinking what I would have done if it had been Bonnibel, then how much they deserved your wrath and more." Marcie just snorts with a smirk and a raised brow at the Queen's way of showing she understands how Marceline feels.

"I still wonder how such a Sugar Queen can be so awesome."

"Dear, do you forget how we met?" She asks dryly.

"Oh no, I remember plenty well, Science Executioner." The queen gives a glare at the mention of her old title.

"That was when I was younger Marcie, days long behind me."

"Yeah but it wasn't so long ago to me, Queeny. Twenty years doesn't seem like much when you've lived for as long and through as much as I have." Marceline crosses her arms over her chest with a glimmer of hurt in her eyes, remembering today.

The queen puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I know what today means to you, Marcie. Maybe finding this little one was a sign." She says sagely.

"What? You think me finding a kid like Simon finding me on our anniversary means something? I'm not going to settle down from being a kicking-butt adventuress to play Mommy."

The queen looks at her with a knowing smile. "Marceline you say that now, but mark my words; if you spend even just a little time with the boy, you'll fall head-over-heels in love before you know it."

"Blah, blah you sappy gumette. Maybe you aren't so tough as nails anymore." Marceline teases.

"I bet I can still kill three times as many vampified Why-wolves as one of your raised zombies with nothing but a silver dagger laced in liquefied Obnoxygen." She falsely challenges.

"Hey, if you hadn't of figured out a way to liquefy the gas cloud, we'd have never made it out of Mountain Country alive."

"Yeah, because I'd be a Why-wolf vampire, Ms. _Undead _Vampire Queen." She deadpans

"How was I supposed to know my vampire minion abilities don't work on sub-species vampires?"

The queen sweeps a hand clear over her head while rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Marceline punches her playfully in the arm and they both laugh before hugging the laughing queen.

"I'll never forget that scrawny, smart-mouth teenager I found in the Fire Kingdom." Marceline says smiling.

"I'll never forget the floating pain in the neck that saved my gummy butt from melting in a duke-out with the King of Fire…because she's still here."

"Just because I don't age doesn't mean I don't grow." The vampire says sagely.

"Yeah, and you were _really_ stupid back then-ow!" The queen nurses the bump on her head as the vampire removes her offending fist.

"So says you, Pot."

"I'd say your more grey then black, Kettle."

"Alright, alright, enough." The king walks up to the two women putting his arms around them to make it a group hug.

"I still thank you for giving me my beautiful queen Marcie. Even if what you two did was very dangerous back then, I'm glad my girl had fun."

"Awe, you have such a good wife Margie." Marceline sticks her tongue out at his weak, sugary glare.

"I know." The king gives a fake pout at the insult from his wife. "I'm kidding Bubba, kidding." She reassures with a smile.

"Alright I've gotta get bucket full of the Magic Cyclops' tears. Mind watching in case he wakes up?"

"Not at all. He should be out for at least a few more hours. That should be enough time to heal him up." The queen says.

"Cool, be back in a bit." The vampire queen waves from the window sill before flying off.

After a twenty minute flight to the Cyclops, Marcie collects two full gallon buckets (Which is like three teardrops) of his tears. In less then an hour she has completed the task. After two hours, the queen and Marceline have washed every inch of the boy's injured body with rags soaked in the tears. He's fully healed and awake after another hour. At this point Marceline has flown home to grab an overnight bag and store her bucket (The other used as recompense to the queen for denying her a test subject) of tears in the supply closet. She made sure to get plenty of real food, bath stuff, and clothes for the kid. (Everything in the kingdom is made of candy so not effectively useful or healthy for him)

The boy immediately stiffens, sits bolt-right up, and looks around like a madman after just opening his eyes. Marceline immediately wraps the boy in a hug, to calm him. He quits squirming but locks up in a fear more powerful then his stench.

"Shhh, shhh kid, you're okay. Those mean people aren't going to hurt you anymore, they're all gone." She whispers into the kid's ear. He relaxes a lot more and Marcie pulls away too look into his still fear-filled eyes with a warm smile.

"They…They gone, but how? Where's is I?" Marceline winces at the kid's poor grammatical speech, but at least he can talk.

"Your in a safe place, kid. My name's Marcie, I'm the one who saved you. You're all healed up; even that nasty burn they gave you is gone." Marceline chuckles as the kid stares at his chest where the burn was in wonder.

"…M-M…Mommy, me's hungy." Marceline stiffens at the name with a visible shock. She feels the kid shrink back in her arms so she forces a smile and pats his head.

"W-well…we'll feed you a nice big meal after your bath m'kay?" Crap, she's in for it now.

"What's a bath?" Everyone in the room stares at the kid.

"A bath is a thing where you scrub your body clean to make you feel good in nice warm water." Marceline can't help but frown sadly at the boys lack in the most basic knowledge.

"Oh, okay. 'N m'name's Demon Brat, not Kid." The boy says with a proud smile.

Everyone in the room stiffens and the temperature drops a few degrees as Marceline glares out the window.

"…Mommy?" Marcie turns back with a sad, pitying smile to the boy.

"That isn't your name. That is a mean, very bad thing that those mean people called you to make you feel bad. But listen to me, you are NOT bad, do you hear me? You are a sweet little boy who deserves love like everyone else." At this the boy stiffens as tears well in his eyes.

He crashes into Marceline and wraps his arms around her tight while he sobs. Marceline just smiles and hugs the boy back. She gently shushes him, and rocks him in their embrace. When his hiccupping cries stop, he pulls away from Marceline with tears and snot still on his face.

"What's m'name Mommy?" She winces at hearing that name again.

Marceline looks away for a minute, wracking her brain for a name. She then looks back with a triumphant grin. "Your name is Seth."

"…S-Seth?" She nods, taking a hanky to wipe his face clean.

"Yep, Seth Abadeer, Abadeer is my last name."

"…Seth Aba-deer…" The boy grins broadly. "Me like it."

"Uh, we'll have to work on your talking skills a lot." Somehow this just makes him happier.

"Yes, me like to learn. Thank you." Marceline can't help but laugh.

"You're welcome, Seth. Now let's get you that bath, hmm?"

Marceline had never even heard of anybody being as dirty as this boy was. It took six total baths, two entire bottles of special scalp shampoo, both bars of soap, twelve rags, and two lufas before the boy was rid of all grime, stench, and infestations. Thankfully the Cyclops Tears healed all the bites and scabs from his uninvited guests so she could scrub his scalp to her heart's content. Turns out the boy's hair was actually a golden blonde color.

As she blow-dries his hair and towel-dries him, Marceline decides to just give him a haircut instead of even attempting to touch the currently waist-length knotted mass. Seth agrees and learns what scissors are. When she's finished he now has short, unkempt blonde locks covering the very tips of his ears and the base of his neck but kept close to his head. His messy but cute bangs fall a full half inch before his thin, blonde eyebrows.

Marceline puts deodorant under his arms for safety measures. Then dresses him in a long-sleeved red shirt, black jeans, white socks, black tennis shoes with red soles and red x's on the sides, and a black leather jacket with red sleeves and black sleeve cuffs. She puts a brand new black belt in the pant's belt-loops to make sure they stay on his skinny waist. After teaching him how to run a comb through his hair, tie his shoes, and put on a belt by himself, Marceline takes his hand and leads him back to the lab so the king and queen can see him.

"My glob, is that really the same little boy? He's so handsome and his hair is blonde!" Seth looks down at his feet, cheeks red with embarrassment at the queen's gushing.

"Nice job Marceline, the kid cleans up nice. He's a fine-looking young man." The king praises.

"Mommy me-I still hungy." He grins with pride, remembering what his mommy said about using I, me, and my when talking. That name still sounds weird.

"It's _hungry _Seth, hungry." Marceline corrects him.

"Hungry, I still hungry." He says.

"Good boy, okay then, let's go eat."

The next two hours are spent showing Seth table manners. Marceline thankfully had enough foresight to put a towel safety-pinned behind his neck like a giant bib to keep his brand-new clothes clean. The boy learns very fast and tries his best, though he may need to be told something more then once, he puts his entire eager heart into learning. Marceline quickly learns that Seth has a monstrous appetite, eating three helpings of everything. When she asks him questions, she's sad to learn he lived in the dump since he was a baby and had been eating trash to live, so it's no wonder he marvels at the cooked food and most basic of things.

After dinner, Marceline takes another trip to the bathroom with Seth to teach him how to brush and floss his teeth.

"Mommy what's that thingy?" Seth asks as he points to the porcelain toilet on their way out of the bathroom. She's decided she will never get used to hearing that name and it being associated with herself.

"Oh, right, that's a toilet Seth. If you ever feel that familiar pressure on your tummy or butt, tell me so she can take you to the bathroom."

"Okay Mommy."

"I'm very serious about this, Seth. If you don't say anything have an accident, I will be mad at you."

Seth's eyes widen and he nods vigorously. "Okay Mommy, I promise! I promise!" She frowns, hearing the great panic in his voice. Her eyes widen when she sees the tears in his eyes.

"Seth? What's the matter? All I said was that I'll be upset if you pee in your pants." She bend's down in front of his face and cups her hands to his cheeks as his breathe quickens.

"I-I…I don't make Mommy mad. Don't leave; Don't give me back, Mommy plea-please."

"Give you…" She realizes what he means; going back to the dump. She pulls the boy into a tight hug, "Oh no, Seth no! I'd never, ever do that to you! Listen, I may get mad and put you in a corner or even spank you if I get really mad, but I'd NEVER take you back there!"

"D-Do…you means it?" His eyes are so hopeful yet scared. Marceline smiles and plants hesitant a kiss on his forehead.

"I mean it."

"O-Okay."

"Hey, what do you say to more learning?" The bright smile is a welcomed sight as he nods.

So they spend the rest of the night in a spare guestroom among a sea of papers and learning about the alphabet and the rules to words. It's when the boy is yawning every five minutes that Marceline realizes he's beat. Without a word she pulls the boy into her arms and floats over to the guest bed where she tucks him snuggly in. After a full minute of smiling at the sleepy-eyed little boy does Marceline bend down and give him a kiss on the forehead again. She brushes aside his bangs with her fingers as she strokes his hair.

"G'night Seth."

"Night-Night, *yawns* Mommy." She laughs, yep, not getting that down anytime soon.

Marceline cleans up the huge mess they made, and turns off the light before floating out. She ends up leaving the door cracked so the light from the hallway can get through, in case he's scared of the dark. She then floats through the hallways to the throne room where she finds the king and queen.

The queen smirks at her. "I do believe you said, and I quote; 'I'm not going to settle down from being a kicking-butt adventuress to play Mommy.' Am I not correct, _Mommy_?"

"Those were the last words you'll ever speak, Queen Sugar-butt."

With a growl and a death glare, Marceline leaps up and begins the chase around the throne room with the queen. The chase ends in two minutes, with Marceline straddling the queen and pinning her arms down by the wrists with one hand. Marceline just smirks down at her as the pink woman struggles futilely to get out of her vampire-grip.

"Can't best a vampire sweetie, I thought I pounded that lesson into your head enough." The Sugar Queen only shoots her own defiant glare at her friend.

"Seth Abadeer, huh? I'm surprised you actually picked a nice name." She grins seeing the vampire above her squirm uncomfortably.

"What was I supposed to do? I couldn't scold the kid and he doesn't have enough speech power to say Marcie! Plus, he'd have been staying with me for a little while anyway!" Marceline mentally notes how indignant she sounds and the harsh heat in her face.

"So, how long did you think you were originally keeping him for?" The queen smirks, knowing she has her friend in a corner.

"I…" Marceline opens her mouth to say something, and then closes it after a few seconds.

Sighing agitatedly, Marceline runs a hand over her face opting for looking pointedly at the offending woman. She sucks in a breath, releases it in a huff, and sits up while crossing her arms over her chest. This allows the queen to sit up and she wraps her arms around the immortal woman.

"I know, Marcie, I know. It's amazing how children have that affect on us, really it is. Look at the bright side; Bonnie has a new playmate and you've got someone to pass your vast knowledge onto. You never, in any of your thousand years, pictured this as where you'd end up, but you are and we'll help you Marcie."

"Ugh, please tell me I'm not going to turn into a big sap because of this kid." Marceline wraps her arms to return the queen's comforting hug. The queen lets out a soft chuckle.

"Maybe, maybe not, but probably." This earns the queen a light slap on the back of the head. "Just so long as you don't let your guard down in serious situations, it's definitely okay to be soft. Knowing you, you'll only look soft to those that are your friends."

"So in other words; you two? Good, I like my rep as bad-a. I'm goanna make that kid one too, so nobody will mess with him."

"You know, I think you ended up giving him the perfect name." The queen muses after a moment of silence.

"Oh yeah?" Marceline does her trademark 'what face'.

"He can be the pillar of strength you've needed for a long time. Someone to keep you going and love you unconditionally even in the worst of times."

"Yeah, speak it in a non-sap lingo, Margie."

"You're going to need him just as much as he's going to need you. Do not forget that."

Marceline sighs, but nods in agreement with a noncommittal hum. "Well, I know he's not exactly warmed up to a lot of people, or he they. So if I want the kid to be normal, that's a definite priority."

"I'm sure my sweet people will love the boy, Marcie." The queen says confused.

"Yeah, but practically nobody will feel as your sugar fiends. They'll all share the opinion of those people in the market city, I've gotta teach him how to deal with it and keep his chin up; one of the hardest lessons in life."

"There are ones as equally hard, and you have plenty of time." The king says from his throne.

"Yeah, maybe." Her voice is a lot softer then she'd like it to be.

"You thinking about making him a vamp, so you won't lose him like Simon?"

"I want him to live life normally for a few years before I even consider something like that. Plus, it'd suck to have the body of a kid for all eternity…But yeah, I'm kicking around the idea of making him like me at some point. Or some form of immortality, I don't necessarily need to bite him."

"That's the safest method, and it would make the two of you closer." The queen advises.

"Yeah, I know. Still, I'm not even going to bring it up for discussion until he's at least fourteen. I'd really like to wait 'till he's eighteen, but I can just see it now; that being the point he'll start pushing it. I'm not going to hide what I am from him. Heck, I'm shocked he hasn't asked about me floating or my scars."

"He's been through a lot today. I bet he'll bring it up tomorrow if not sometime this week."

"That's at least one thing I _am _prepared for."

"You've got a long road ahead of you Marcie, but you aren't alone." The king comes over to sit on the floor with the now cross-legged women.

"Yeah Bubba, I know." She smirks. "I'm actually wondering all that I should teach him after we get through the being normal lessons. What should I tell him about me and where I come from, or my long past. My dad-oh glob! What am I ever going to do if he somehow breaks out?! I was prepared to fight him no problem, but he could use Seth-!" Marceline cuts herself off, gripping her hand over her heart as tears start forming at the corners of her eyes and her breathing quickens.

"Marcie? Marcie! Stop it! There will be plenty of time to worry about that other stuff. Your dad can't even break out unless you open a portal to the Nightosphere. Though I suggest you start teaching him to fight and a hero's responsibility as soon as you can, he'll need it." Marceline nods and the queen then drops the vice-grip she held on Marceline's shoulders.

"Wow, I just went through a major freak out just thinking something improbable would happen. Geez, do kids really do this to you?" She groans as both the monarchs nod with a shared grim expression.

The years ahead indeed look both bleak and promising for this new, unexpected, and inexperienced mother. She might survive…probably.

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A/N: Please note that I do not condone abuse in any way shape or form. However, Finn (or Seth) is the only human ever seen by the vastly diverse inhabitants of Ooo, naturally, when you see something you've ever seen before you become afraid of that thing or at the very least wary. As we know people can be stupid and act on impulses without looking at the whole picture.

I renamed Finn in this fic for three reasons:

1. Because I don't think Marceline would name her kid Finn. (She's said his name is dorky before.) I think she'd want it to be something punk-rockish and Seth is a common name for people with Rock background.

2. Seth means "pillar" and I hinted at the symbolic reason towards the end of the chapter.

3. Seth Abadeer has a very nice ring to it and it's simple.

I really enjoyed writing the characters of Bubblegum's parents and their interactions with Marceline. Margret is essentially a merge of Bubblegum's and Marcie's personalities and an older looking version of Bubblegum.

King Bubba (Yes Prince Gumball's name) Is where Bubblegum got her essential dislike of adventuring, from what I've seen of her she is all prissy. (Up until the episode Peebles and Lady and that was only when Ricardio was manhandling Lady that she did anything.)

I hope I set everything up nicely. I am planning on continuing this but I don't know when. I tried as best I could to not make Marceline OOC, let me know if I did.


	2. Beginning the Journey & Meeting Family

A/N: Hello, I'm finally back with the next installment of this!

I have one thing to say: This is the longest chapter for any of my fanfiction I have ever written at all! I hit a major mile stone with 17, 438 words total for this chapter alone!

Let me know what you guys think.

Enjoy! Read and review!

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"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy, wake up! C'mon Mommy!" Marceline groans as her eyes crack open in the dimness of the room. Seth is jumping up and down on the bed below her trying to get her attention.

"Hmm? What is it Seth? Mommy's tired." She stretches while she floats upright with a loud yawn.

It's been four days since she rescued her new son and she found that after the initial first day, the little weenie had decided to trust her wholeheartedly. He has made a bunch of new friends in the Candy Kingdom, who have accepted his existence with open arms. She's been teaching him to read, write, do math, and play the piano along with how to interact normally in society, and his speech has improved fanatically. He still has a hard-to-kick habit with his sticky fingers, Marceline's actually already been forced to paddle him once because of it. (NOT a fun experience for anybody.)

"You said we're going to the new home today, right?" She's going to kill the Sugar Queen for loading him with all that sugar during his birthday party yesterday.

"Yes Seth, we can't live here, we have our own home to get to. One that's eagerly awaiting you." She smiles and quickly scoops him into her arms starting to tickle his tummy as he giggles and squirms.

"Hahaha! Mommy…hahaha…Mommy stop it! Hahaha!" She relents and plants a few quick kisses on his cheeks before plopping him on the bed. "Hey!" He rubs his butt from the slightly hard impact while he laughs.

"Alright, you go down to breakfast and I'm going to take a shower." She says with a shooing wave of her hand while she floats to the bathroom. Seth nods and bounds out of the room and down the hall.

It had been the morning after their first night together when Seth had finally noticed his mother could float. She explained to him that she was bitten by a vampire and then turned into one. She also told him that she 'nicely took' the throne from the Vampire King and how she locked Grandpa Hunson up in a bad place because they both kept doing bad things. Just because she hated her father; that doesn't mean her son shouldn't know about him, despite what her brain kept telling her.

Seth had taken everything in stride, and in fact loved Marceline more for her status. It took some real dancing around the facts to explain that even though she was the Vampire Queen, she did not in fact (officially) rule the Vampire Kingdom. (They wouldn't accept an over-thrower as their ruler even if she managed to take out the Vampire King and she was too tired to defeat EVERY vampire there in order to get them to obey her unquestioningly. But she still has a command over most of them so they will follow her bidding if it's simple or in their interests.) She'd, in short, said she didn't want to rule because they were mean.

She explained some of the more friendly tales of her journeys around Ooo to her son, and said that she knew Aunt Marge from traveling around with her for quite a few years. Margret took over explaining how she knew Uncle Bubba and eventually returned to the Candy Kingdom to marry him (After explaining what marrying someone meant.) Much to the young princess' dismay, Seth had dubbed her Cousin Bon-Bon. The princess tried to 'subtly' hint that they couldn't be together if they were cousins, having taken an immediate like-liking to her knew playmate.

Seth flat-out stated: "I wouldn't want to marry my cousin. That's why you _are _my cousin." To that, the princess was crushed and Marceline couldn't float she was laughing so hard.

After Marceline dresses in a black rock shirt and blue jeans to go with her black leather boots, she joins her son, already devouring his breakfast at the table. Seth is dressed in matching blue jeans and a black and red tie-dye shirt to go with his tennis shoes. He's wearing the bear hat Marceline hand-made him (with magic) two days ago, after he was heartbroken at losing the one he's had "For forever." She made it expandable, to grow as he grows, and an exact replica of the one he poorly drew her to see what it looked like. It's very durable and resistant to stains or curse magic, but it can be burned or severely ripped and is still influential to other magic.

After breakfast, Seth has his brand-new pack crammed full of what's left of his belongings at the castle, ready to go. The pack two different shades of green, the top half light and bottom half dark green, with a zipper vertically going all the way across the front of the direct middle of the pack. Marceline remarked that because it's a bit too big for him to wear now he looks like a turtle, but he's still adamant to wear the gift from his Aunt Marge. After a good-bye to the Royal Family, Marceline picks the boy up and they fly through the skies to their new home.

This tree-fort also has a lot of history for Marceline, but she made sure to burn every shred of anything belonging to her or ash and replace everything with brand-new things. She also put ward and protection barriers around a five mile radius of the place along with a cloaking cast. Nothing would get near their home without her knowing. It had taken three entire days for all the preparations to be made all around their house, with the poor shape it had been after the last ten or so years of neglect. The land had to be put into a proper state of care, all floors and supported structures in and around the tree-fort had to be ripped up and redone, the list goes on, and it took nearly every favor Marceline had to call in and get it done.

The shack-like entrance, shaky catwalk in wrapped around the trunk's middle, all the poorly made rope bridges, the shaky and rotted ladder stairs, the catacombs of the hollowed trunk with the spider-like network of ladders, and the stupid boat lookout were all completely ripped out. The floorboards and wall structures were replaced with dark oak-wood boards and every wall was painted a dark-blue except Seth's room. The ripped out structures were upgraded to solid brand-new versions with stable support systems and plastered with coats of luster and all the nine-yards to make it last. The ladders in the tree were replaced with iron step-ladders bolted securely into the branch-like extensions. Every hole that opened up to another room from the stairs was covered with door structures built into the walls; the sides of the entrances were trapezoid-shapes put up on their slanted sides, so the doors swung out and faced toward the ceiling slightly at an angle. These doors were essentially oddly shaped closets with no ceilings that you entered every time you walked up the stairs.

The shack that served as a connected entrance to the tree fort was remade into an actually put together house-structure, painted light blue with a dark-blue shingled roof, and given a dark oak door. The door was bolted and locked with only two keys made and safely hidden by Marceline. It was made into a giant family room/ main living room. Every board that surrounded the base of the tree was removed and replaced by a well- made picket fence and surrounded by a brand-new, electrified barbed-wire fence. Every widow was simply replaced and while Marceline stored all treasure from the hollow catacombs in a magic sack courtesy of Choose Goose. She completely cleaned out the cave/garage and had a brand-new workshop set up with all tools organized neatly along the walls and three different work benches.

The family room was furnished with a giant five-person, cushiony and dark-brown couch a few feet to the direct right of the stairway that leads to the catacombs or the hollowed out trunk. In the corner to the left of the big couch, are two big chests with all of Seth's toys. All along the two square side walls from top to bottom were long shelves containing every board game, video game, move, book, spare blanket and cushion, and art supply (All newly owned after Seth's birthday party) were kept. They are organized alphabetically in the above listed categories. On the wall directly parallel to the couch is a big coffee table to hold snacks and the like along with the projector/holographic TV screen. The entire room is thickly carpeted in a deep-red carpet. There were also a couple chairs at the table if Seth or Marceline ever had work to do.

Once the catacombs were cleaned out, Marceline had an indoor playground/gym built. It's now a ginormous metal jungle gym filling the _entire _once hollow trunk of no distinguished shape. The bars are all three feet thick for plenty of landing and walking room. In between every single bar is a thick net so Seth has little chance of hurting himself and the edges of the bars embedded in the walls serve as footholds to wall climb.

The bathroom, in the first detached section of the fort and connected by a solid crossing bridge to the kitchen in the main tree, was remodeled with a mirror medicine cabinet over a sink built into a dark-wood counter. A stand-in shower with a sliding glass door and a black shower curtain surrounding it is built in the corner of the bathroom, next to a brand-new, bolted down tub/shower combo and a dark-blue shower curtain shielding it. The tub has new built in shelves and hooks to hold the care products and a light-blue adhesive mat on the tub floor. Two separate towel racks are near the shower and tub. There was a full length body mere on the left side of the door and on the back of the door for Marceline to float. (All glass in the house was made so a vampire's reflection was visible.) The toilet was also replaced, and given a black toilet seat to match the bath mats in front of the sink, shower, and tub.

The kitchen, which used to be like a living room, was given two four-burner gas stoves/ovens. There was a giant counter top all along the wall the old couch used to be with several drawers and cabinets containing all the cooking utensils, appliances, the dishes, and the silverware that was organized by a specific system. A sink was put right next to the brand-new giant freezer that could self stock itself with ice as long as the water filter was filled every three days. And the wall parallel to the freezer supports an array of cupboards to hold all their non-refrigerated food (Thank you Sugar Queen for the much needed kitchen.) The little entrances to Marceline's weapon room and the family room were left alone.

Marceline's weapon room was only put back the way it was and restocked with a few new weapons she'd gotten after the remodel. She was debating whether to let Seth in there or not. Maybe she should make a rule he can only be there with her and is to avoid it entirely any other time. The weapon room was located in the second detached section, directly connected to the third detached section where the attic is.

The attic was turned into a sort of map and magic storage after being remodeled. Marceline had that stupid pulley leverage system that Ash made and sealed the entrance he put up for it when the floor was redone. Seth calls it the Mystic Adventure Room because of all the maps and magic stuff. (Marceline will readily teach him healing and defensive magic but she's not sure what else.)

Marceline's room, what used to be a second living room, is directly connected to the Mystic Adventure Room by an inclined wooden stairwell once the rope bridge was gone. She had a simple queen-sized bed with a silk, black bedspread, sheets, and a comforter and blood-red pillows. This was facing hot-dog style right next to the only window. Where an ugly purple armchair used to be was now a twin dresser to hold all of her clothes. Next to the dresser was where her bas would permanently lean when not used, and underneath the window was a nightstand holding a black lamp with a blood-red lamp shade and her journal.

Seth's room is the highest room in the main tree and connected to hers by stairs. Because of how his room is built for the structure of the tree, not much could be done with it besides putting in the stairs. All he had was a simple single-twin bed with light-blue everything and a cedar wood twin dresser shoved in the far wall of the room that sits among the many overgrown roots wrapping throughout the room. His bed was barely a foot to the left of the stairs (nailed into a tree root) and just those things gave him maybe a five foot total walking space. Because of the set up, he didn't even have a complete floor. Instead the long edge and the perpendicular side that meet it at the corner the stairs come into his room leave an approximate two-foot-wide gap. On the long edge it's because there's nowhere to finish nailing the floorboards with all the roots in the way.

There's a room underneath the room, but he's too little to get in and out of there by himself. Marceline hopes that maybe by a year he'll be able to climb through the tree with ease, after all the jungle gym playing and training.

"I don't mind my room, Mommy." Seth says at the end of the tour when Marceline apologizes as he looks around. "This is our house, Mommy. My home, I love it for forever." He hugs her legs tightly. "I love you even more, Mommy."

"I…I love you…too Seth." She hasn't said those words in a long, long time, but it's easier then she thought it would be to say it to her son. Marceline picks him up in her arms and they both just hug each other for a while.

"Hey Mommy, what's that?" She pulls away and follows Seth's gaze to the exposed entryway framed by the twisted root-work. A little landing and the beginning of a stairwell is the only thing visible from it.

"That's the new balcony, Seth. Ash had a stupid boat lookout before and I decided a shaded balcony would be a nice touch." Marceline starts to fly out the entryway with Seth because he couldn't reach it with the gap in the flooring.

Seth gasps, "Sun bad for Mommy!" He protests causing Marceline to stop just in front of the entrance.

She chuckles. "Seth, look real hard out there, don't you see…something's different?" She looks down at him with a bemused smile and a quirked brow.

"Huh? Hmmm..." He turns his focus back out to the entry, squinting hard. "…Nope." He concludes confusedly.

"Well, then, I'll just have to show you." She says with her eyes half-lidded, a knowing smile on her face. She floats out to the stairs and Seth gives her a 'you-aren't-showing-me-the-whole-picture' look.

Marceline rolls her eyes. "Don't you think it's maybe a little dark out here for the early afternoon, Seth?"

"Huh?" He looks around once then sheepishly scratches the back of his head with a shy smile. "Um yeah, why's that Mommy?" Without a word Marceline points a finger skyward and Seth follows it. "What's that?!"

"That, Seth, is a giant umbrella tarp. I had it put up over the entire balcony, even the stairwell and the landing. It's colored pitch black so no sun has a chance to leak through. You wanna know how it's there?" He nods and Marceline floats up the stairwell.

The stairwell led to a twenty-five foot in diameter, oak flooring balcony. Complete with a steel guardrail all along the circular outer-rim. In the direct midpoint of the circle is a fifteen foot tall, steel pole supporting an, essentially, giant, black umbrella. The balcony is directly bordering the solid canopy roof so the shade naturally lapses a small section of it. This was so in case there was an outdoor house party or some other outdoor activity during the day, Marceline would be able to join in. There was a small table with a couple of chairs three feet from the pole as the only furniture. For decorum and entertainment purposes, Marceline had set up a rather expensive-looking telescope (Sugar Queen) near the guardrail with a stepstool for Seth.

"The telescope is a gift from Aunt Marge for you. I'll show you how it works sometime tonight, okay? I wouldn't want you looking at the sun through that thing; it'd be worse then looking directly at it." She tells the curiously gazing boy.

"M'kay."

"You know Seth, if you wok real hard, in a few years I'm going to take you adventuring in some really cool places around here."

Marceline smiles, thinking about the now magically sealed off portal to the beneath-a-verse. (The Gnome King doesn't think she knows about it.) There's also the hidden dungeon eighty paces west from the tree, under a dumb-looking rock, that Joshua made to hide his demon-blood sword in wait of a worthy inheritor. A demon-blood sword, now that would make a good weapon for Seth. She had to hand it to that weird dog; he was eccentric, but damned if he didn't deserve the respect he got around Ooo and the Nightosphere.

Marceline would have to visit him and his family sometime soon, no doubt that word of Seth's existence has reached every corner of Ooo. Or that the Vampire Queen has become his mommy. How was she going to explain that one to him? Or even anyone for that matter? Well she'd figure it out; it just won't be easy is all.

"Mommy," Seth calls, fearing he'd lost her attention. She blinks from her thoughts and gently smiles down at him, but sees his eyes are focused behind her.

Suddenly every hair on her neck rises to alert her (too late) that somebody is in the boundary field. Marceline subconsciously calls her axe-bass to come to her hand as she turns to face the intruder. At the same time her axe-base is flying through the air to reach the balcony through Seth's room, Marceline lands abruptly on the ground and shoves Seth protectively behind her. Her body is body is tense and face grave until she sees the sight to greet her as the axe-bass flies into her still open hand.

"What, are you somehow summoned every time somebody thinks of you? Who are you, Bloody Mary?" Marceline smiles at the not-too-happy-looking guest as she lets the hand wielding her axe to fall limp at her side.

"I heard rumors, thought you'd come to me, waited, and decided to look for you after a day. This was the first place I thought you'd come, actually. I guess I'm just lucky."

"You never were the patient one Josh. How's the family? Your kid's are…what, eight by our years now?"

"Wife's fine, the kids are good, Jacob has stretchy powers." The dog nonchalantly shrugs off her small talk, his arms still crossed testily. "So, where is this last human I've heard so much about?" At this, Seth's hold on her legs from behind tightens and she glances behind her to see him cowering in fear.

"Seth it's okay, he's a friend. You can come out now." Seth timidly peeks out from behind her to get a glance at the guest, before he comes to stand at Marceline's side, gripping her pant-leg with one hand, and still shaking slightly. "Seth, this is Joshua the Dog, a friend from my earlier adventuring days with Aunt Marge." She gestures with a hand to the dog on their roof.

"Hello there little chap, Seth is it?" The dog drops his crossed arms and gives a friendly smile.

Seth nods. "Hey Mister, what are you doin' on top of our home?"

Marceline opens her mouth to admonish him, but realizes she'd be asking the same question vehemently if it were anybody else on the roof with them. Joshua just laughs it off like a joke.

"I came to see you, little guy. It's not everyday the last human is discovered, or taken in by the Vampire Queen." Seth just nods, his mother told him what he was and that he'd be the center of attention for a while.

"Would you like to come in, Mister…Josh-e-a?" Joshua tries to stifle the laughter at the mispronunciation of his name and Seth looks down at his feet, blushing with embarrassment.

"Actually, Seth we're going to visit his house. He's got lots of kids for you to play with and they're all nice." This excites the boy.

"Well, I wouldn't necessarily call a litter of five lots, but okay. Maggie would love to have you two over."

"Ma…Maggie?" Seth gives a confused look.

"That's his wife's name Seth. Her name is Margret like Aunt Marge, so we call her Maggie to separate them." Marceline explains.

"Oh, okay so, She is my Aunt Maggie and he's, uh, Uncle Josh?" Marceline shoots a questioning look over to Joshua. He looks to be thinking for a moment, before he gives a nod of approval.

"Yep, that's right." Marceline sends the axe-bass back to her room and she scoops the boy high into her arms. "Let's go, I don't doubt Maggs has made snacks for company."

Joshua laughs good-naturedly, "I don't either, knowing her."

After Marceline grabs a large, black umbrella, the three set off for the Dog residence. It's a small but nice house in the somewhat rebuilt ruins of a modern civilization stationed near the grasslands. Joshua's reputation as a Demon Slayer keeps any of the regularly lurking low-threats from coming anywhere near him or his family, so safety isn't an issue.

All along the journey there, it's a hands-on lesson for Seth. Marceline had taken him to the Candy Slums in the less desirable section of the Candy kingdom so he could learn to read people's body language. He, of course, saw the similarities between the market city's people, but he'd never 'read' them and couldn't tell a side-long glance from an unspoken threat. He was also reeking with fear, and seemed to be stiffly moving, mechanically almost. It would, like everything else, take time, but that was something they had plenty of. (As Queen Bubblegum liked to stressfully point out to her worrying over the still growing list of things to learn, anyway.)

As soon as they reach the gate of the house, five pups that were playing in the yard all rushed to greet them. Marceline could see Maggie come out and lean against the open door on the porch. She casually floats a few feet above Joshua and lazily floats her way over to the porch. Upon her contact with the solid foundation, Maggie glomps both her and her son in a bear hug.

"Oh Marcie it's been ages!"

"Heh, yeah it has. Sorry Maggie, but it's a long story. These last few years….let's just say I'm settling down for a little while."

Maggie releases the Vampire Queen and backs away a few steps, a broad smile on her face that only widens when she sees Seth.

"So this is him, hmm? I still can't believe it; Marceline, the Vampire Queen and number one Adventuring Master, is a mother."

"Yeah well…I…" Both women look over to see Joshua finally joining them on the porch, the sea of puppies following at his heels and pining for attention.

"Well, Seth, these are your playmates for the afternoon. Would you like to say hello?" Seth nods and looks to Marceline, who sets him down.

All the puppies are crowding around their father and peek nervously at the human boy. Finally one puppy is brave enough to step forward. He stops a foot in front of Seth, and they both stare blankly at each other. All the adults and other pups watch the interaction. The two boys look each other up and down and circle around each other.

"Who're you?" The pup asks when they stop to stare once more.

"M'name's Seth Aba-deer, you?"

"'M Jake the Dog, look what I can do." Jake stretches his arms out at his sides to ridiculous lengths, and waves them crazily as they vibrate wave-like patterns from the movement.

Seth gives a big smile. "Totes. Wanna play?" Jake smiles back and nods. Soon the boy and five puppies race off the porch to play in the yard.

"Stretchy powers, huh? How'd he get them?" Marceline asks with a laid back grin, watching her son play with the Dog children.

"Dunno." Joshua replies. "He scared Margret half to death when he showed them, though. Told her that her child manual was dumb and beat up a snake with an enlarged fist."

"Okay…" Marceline trails off awkwardly, not able to see how the two statements made a logical connection.

"Why don't we all head inside?" Margret suggests, "I'm sure you've much to share."

So the vampire and dogs sit down in the den. Marceline pours out the story of how she found Seth, ended up being called Mommy, and taking on the boy with out much resistance or even realizing it. The two had the expected reaction to all the blood-curdling, sickening news. She also tells them of what he knows about her and her past, and what she's planning to teach him. The children come in an hour later: exhausted, dirty, and hungry. Marceline has to apologize for Seth's major appetite after they feed him.

They let the kids take a group bath in the outside pool and put them down for naps in the living room pillow fort. Josh helped them make the fort at the group puppy-dog face (Seth surprisingly made the most effective one instead of the actual puppies.) The adults sit in the den, watching Seth sleep near the crackling fireplace with Jake in a brotherly embrace.

"I think those two are going to be good friends." Marceline says.

"I think they will too." Joshua agrees. "So, you think he'll be the one to get my Demon-Blood sword?"

"I don't think, I know." She answers surely.

"What if one of my pups manages to take it instead, hmm?" The dog asks with a cocky grin.

"Seth will be ready before any of them, trust me. I plan on him being ready for his first adventure in two to three years."

"Truth be told, I think Jacob is the only adventure-worthy pup. He has that courage and leadership, even in one so young. All the others, well, you saw them."

Marceline only nods. "I wanna ask; would you two consider being the godparents? You've got so many kids and you're tough. Sugar Queen and King only have Little Bonnie, and they spoil her rotten."

"Marceline, you're an immortal who's only weakness is sunlight or intense heat, what makes you think something's going to happen to you before we've both been long in the dirt?" Josh counters.

"I know, but every parent should have that fail-safe plan. Expect the unexpected, ya know?"

"I agree Marcie, and we'd be honored. Though, I pray nothing comes to that." Margret speaks up.

"Thanks Maggs, me either." Marceline floats up and stretches, not used to being so grounded very often. "Well, I'd better get going. Thanks you guys, for everything."

"Anytime, Marcie, anytime." Joshua says.

"Visit a lot more, kay?" Margret orders more then asks.

"Yeah, we will." With that, the Vampire Queen silently flies over, picks up her sleeping son, and carries him home in the protection of her umbrella.

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It'd been four months, and Marceline watched her son in his regular playtime in his indoor jungle gym. This was by far his favorite room in their home; he never tired of crawling army-style across the nets or learning how to drop and roll, among other things.

Marceline had begun feeding the kid twice the amount of food he'd showed to have an appetite for so he could gain weight and burn off energy while still gaining weight with his exercise. He'd already gotten the weight in his face back and his ribs didn't show, but he would never gain back any of the baby fat that should have been there. Instead, he had a slim, healthy figure that was sure to soon start getting slightly muscular. He was definitely handsome. Though being a bright, happy, and curious boy, Seth showed a great maturity and intuition. He was able to pick up on many things around him, even if he didn't quite know what they meant.

He was beginning to adopt some of his mother's personality; while he still had a happy-go-lucky outlook, being bright and cheerful, he tended to be a bit sarcastic and laid back. He wasn't cynical like Marceline could be, and had no interest in pranks or mind-games. He shared a budding love for music with her, begging her to sing to him and teach him to play the grand piano that they had moved into the family room. Seth tended to stick to mimicking the basic melodies that his mother strummed on her base for now, though she was amercing him in several different kinds of musical culture.

Seth grew to pick his own clothing, even if it was still the same style of clothing Marcie dressed him in anyways, and started gradually growing independent bit by bit. While he was far from completely independent, he could do a few little things by himself like set the table, pick up his toys, and make little things like bologna sandwiches or a bowl of cereal to eat. (Climbing in the jungle gym taught him to climb on counters and chairs to reach things)

Marceline, from the beginning, taught Seth to read, write, and do math including the basics of figuring money. With literally all the time in the world and such an eagerness to learn, Seth soaked up everything. Delving deep into his studies, he was reading and writing at an average nine-year-old level, and his math skills were into the second stages of algebra (according to Queen Bubblegum) Seth was averagely-mannered and decently respectful. He was more considerate and helpful then a lot of kids older then him.

Seth craved acceptance from kids and excelled at all the games they eagerly taught him to play. Being a constant visitor and overnight guest at the Dog residence, Seth quickly grew into a friendship with all the pups, even being elected leader of the pack, but remained Jake's best guy friend. (His mom held the permanent Best Friend Ever position.) Marceline hoped this peace and feverish progress continued throughout the years.

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The time had come for Seth's fifth birthday. Everyone gathered in the candy kingdom to celebrate. Marceline thought that now it was finally time to start teaching him combat and the basics of magic training so she had a very special gift for him.

"Come on Mommy, may I please open my gift now?" Seth begged after they had finished eating cake.

"Alright, alright, here you go, birthday boy." The floating vampire says as she hands him a large, red-wrapped box with a black bow. Seth tears it open with manic-speed, sending paper everywhere. Finally opening the box Seth looks in it with surprised confusion.

"What is it Mommy?"

"It's a body suit son. It's special armor with weights to put on to help you train. Starting tomorrow, I'm teaching you how to fight."

Seth gives an excited gasp, "Really, truly?!"

Marceline lands in front of her son, placing both hands firmly on his shoulders, and staring seriously into his excited eyes. "Remember what I've told you Seth; being a hero is dangerous, requires endless determination, years of dedication, and perseverance. Above all, a hero, no matter how great, can't save everybody alone. You must place those you love and hold dearest to your heart above everybody else, no matter what duty tells you. This path can be filled with pain, son, and death for certain. Are you sure you want this?"

"Yes Mommy, I'll be an even greater hero then you. I'll always do my best to _be_ the best and make you a proud, Mommy." His eyes reflect his wise-beyond-years maturity and a determinative seriousness rarely seen in the happy boy.

Marceline hugs her boy close, whispering in his ear, "Baby, you will always make me proud. Just keep your promise."

He whispers back with a fierce hug, "I will."

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Just as Marceline had predicted, Seth was ready for his first adventure by the time he was six. They started out just little missions with nothing really major, but Marceline was always watching and evaluating every aspect from the shadows. She was a completely different person when training her son; strict, cold, never letting up in the slightest, and often imposed methods verging on attempted child-battery in any form of physical training (which was most of the training.) But if she was strict, he was ten times so on himself. He wanted nothing less then perfection and pushed himself to his limits to get it. When he didn't he kept his anger in check, but it showed he was starting to border on self-hate. At that point Mommy would come back out and explain to him again that he didn't have to be perfect because nobody was perfect,

He eventually lightened up on himself but still pushed his limits above and beyond. The body suit Marceline had gotten him had gone through three weight level upgrades. The suit itself was sleek, skin-tight but not restrictive, and black fabric with the weight/armor pieces were a dull grey. He had such on his shoulders, elbows, wrists, kneecaps, and hips. Two connecting pieces that guarded both halves of his torso and back were going all along from tips of his chest to his waistline. The suit was actually a two piece and every armor piece was connected by leather belts snapped snuggly on the respective parts of Seth's body (1).

Seth wore this under clothing everyday, and was able to because the suit didn't look bulky on his thin frame in a loose yet fitting shirt and jeans. Seth also wore a black trench coat with buckles like his armor plates to close it (2), and steel-toed knee-high, black boots. On missions, instead of his trademark bear hat widely recognized anywhere in Ooo, Seth wore a black bandana with skulls on it to hide his blonde locks (3).

Because of the upgrades, his speed and stamina were far beyond that of a normal human's, enough to keep only a small distance behind with Marceline flying full speed in chase for four hours, before he had to stop for a twenty to thirty minute breather. He could easily blend in and move with the shadows, completely masking his presence to almost anybody. His sensing abilities and five senses were sharper then most, even Joshua's. Seth could catch a lot of things without giving away any clue he noticed them, and while he couldn't track for long distances, one whiff of something like a lost doll and the boy could tell you what it was made from, how much of the manufacturing products were used, how long it had been lost, and basically specific descriptions of who touched it last. Seth had learned how to read a lot from people's personalities after a minute-long, discreet glance, too. Sometimes he could make it seem like he was reading people's minds based off what he could tell about them.

When on missions, Seth's personality changed completely. He had a no-nonsense-attitude, always surveyed his surroundings, and expected the unexpected. Granted that he was always on alert, Seth had the ability to seem relaxed and collected to not arouse suspicion. When in a fight, Seth chooses the quickest and most efficient seen way to dispose of the enemy threat after a few seconds of observation. He could be in and out of an enemy's defenses before anybody saw him move, and he has yet to kill anything monster or person. If you observe one of his fights, Seth's fighting style is based off speed with strong, precise hits, and with the agility of a cat and his nimbleness, he looks like he's dancing. He is an amazing long-range and close range fighter because of his weapons.

Seth was in mid-mastery level of a two-handed single sword style, and high beginner's level with two swords. His blades were two curved, Chinese broadswords with good, rough cloth on the actual grip of the guards, plain pommels, and a durable hilt (4). The blades were the perfect size for him, single-edged and light in weight yet deadly enough to not warrant a bevel. Marceline had helped him inscribe invisible magic runes on the guard, unique in his magic signature so he could call the blades to his hands.

He had an odd talent for handling a spear, Marceline ended up getting him a two-meter long and four-inch in width, light reinforced steel spear. It was custom-made, sleek, and fully extendable to five meters, with a grip-hold and razor-sharp bladed tip (5). It was colored a deep, lollipop-blue (so Marceline wouldn't suck the color out of it if it were red,) and Seth considered it his 'baby'. She also helped him inscribe the runes on his swords' hilts onto the spear's shaft.

Seth's accuracy on a target was fairly decent, but could use some work. His Aunt Marge had hand-made him two .22 caliber long-range, compact defensive colt pistols (6). They could hold seven shots in a round, had easy fire with little kick, were easy to line-up quick, and had great grip holds. They were all black so it could blend in with Seth's clothes. Joshua made him eighty-four Grade-A silver bullets and twelve silver cartridges for each gun.

Seth also had a sleek, traditional recurve bow made of light steel with a sleek design (7) and thirty Grade-A arrows. The bow had the runes on its handle, though the guns didn't. The arrows were special; Marceline cast different spells on the arrows that were activated by specific aria forgotten ancient tongue (8). Ten of the arrows were casted to burst into flames at the arrowheads, ten were made to conjure and compress lightning in the heads, five were made to be reinforced beyond breakability and could crash through a boulder unscathed, and five were made heat-seeking that Seth could control in direction with a single finger.

If worse ever came to worst, Marceline got him an Azoth dagger. The dagger had a fiery-red hilt that stretched up a decent length in the blade, these growing fainter as they went as they clashed with cold ice that stretched from the tip of the blade down and met the flames. The blade itself was actually shaped to look like dancing flames, crooked and sharp (9).

Seth had securely proficient medical knowledge and he knew beginner level healing, preservation, and sickness spells. He could summon any size force field from any part of his body on mental command, reinforce all of his weapons and any part of his body, and summon a force-field around him in six-foot diameter after an aria. This meant if he was guarding someone he had to be close yet distant to take a fight elsewhere but still provide protection. This is where being both long and close-range combative came in handy.

Seth chose to learn fire magic after the basic defense and medicine. It was easier for him then the other two, when that took him all of three years to learn where he is now, while the fire only took one year for him to master a median level of skill and begin on the advanced level after only two years.

Now, Seth was just about to turn seven and Marceline decided it was time for him to be tested on a real adventure.

**00 The Day Before 00**

"Do you really think he's ready Marcie?" Joshua asked over a cup of tea in the den.

They glanced out the living room window, watching Seth and Jake spar in the yard. Jake and Seth had started growing apart because Seth won every spar ever waged against his dog-friend. Jake knew how to wield a sword on an average level, but he mostly relied on his stretchy powers. Jake wasn't arrogant or cocky, but confident that what made him special was all he really needed. Seth had endless ways to effortlessly counter anything and everything the dog could throw at him, and he tried to make Jake feel better by toning it down since it was only a spar, but the matches were still decisive defeats. Jake was nearing fourteen and wanted to prove himself, begging his father to do something and help him.

He didn't want to beat Seth, he wasn't stupid in thinking he'd ever have that hope, but he wanted to be able to at least hold his own better to be a great adventurer in his own right. Jake had started on his career much the same time Seth did, and knew he couldn't compete in popularity, tough he did make a fairly decent name for himself. Jake knew better then to compare himself with Seth, being proud of himself and his improvements in his powers mastery. Yet he still couldn't help but be jealous despite Seth's best efforts to show he thought of them as equals and best friends. Seth didn't want to lose his friend, but he didn't know what to do.

"Yeah, Seth is definitely ready. He's been doing the lame guarding adventure missions for a year to hold back and improve his skill more. I was actually thinking about doing this earlier in the year, but he actually refused saying he wasn't ready. Now he says he'd like to try it, he thinks a demon-blood sword would be a nice thing to have and says he'd be grateful for such an honor from his godfather. I'm just glad he's humble about it."

"You're raising a good kid, Marcie. If Seth's like this now, what do you think he'll be like when he's a teenager?" Margret interjects.

"Hmm, I think he'll be as well-known an adventurer as I was with enough skill to nearly match me." She replies nonchalantly.

"That's very likely." Joshua comments. "Do you think he'd be able to take on Hunson?"

"Where did _that_ come from?!" Marceline glares coldly at her old friend, pain mixed with angry fires on her face.

"I…Marcie I know you'd like to think that it was because he was evil that you locked your father away. Don't float there and try to tell me, though, that you didn't have personal grudges in it-"

"I'm not! I'd never d-"

"Let me finish!" Joshua snaps as he and the vampire get in each other's faces. "I know you've told Seth in a little bit more detail about him over these past few years, and I know he knows, or at least has inklings, about your…relationship. Look at that boy out there, and tell me he isn't the type to try and fix anything…especially for his mother. Or that he isn't smart enough to figure out the true depth of your troubles."

"I won't, I know my boy and it's like you say. Do you honestly think he'd go that far, though? I mean, I've told him some of the lighter deeds Dad has done: Slaughtering villages, stealing people's souls, and some of his methods on dealing with anybody who tells him no or tries to stop him. Seth seems generally a little fearful of his grandpa."

"Yes, now he does, but when he gets older don't you think that fear will subside with how strong he'll get? You just said he'd be as strong, or strong enough to match, you. He knows you locked him up. Don't you think he'll see, that and think he could handle dear old Gramps?"

"But he doesn't even-"

"He's smart enough to find the spell Marcie. If not to fix you two, Seth might want to just talk to him, or something. Ever think of that?"

"Why would he?" Marceline's not angry anymore, just surprised by the question.

"Hunson is still family to the boy, he may be evil, but many could say the same of you. Seth might want to give Hunson a chance to speak for himself and judge his integrity for himself. I know he'd readily, viciously, disagree with anyone claiming you're evil."

"I…yeah…" Marceline trails off, solemnly looking out the window.

"Listen Marcie, I'm just saying that there will come a time when he may want to meet Grandpa Hunson. Would you rather it is you or him that decides when?"

"Why are you bringing this up now, Joshua?" Marceline doesn't take her eyes off the window as she addresses the dog. She sees Seth is coming up to the steps of the porch with a downcast look while Jake is storming off.

"Marcie, you're sending him to get a demon-blood sword, that's big. You're giving him more trust and responsibility. I just want the both of you to be ready for when even bigger things to come. I do look at the boy like family, a nephew maybe, and you like a sister."

"Thank you." Marcie says weakly.

"You're welcome, both of you."

It's then that they hear the front door open and shut quietly. Seth comes into the den, looking like he's deciding whether to cry in anger or sadness.

"Seth, what's wrong baby?"

"Nothin'." The sulky reply with a dejected pout is immediate.

"Seth, I saw you and Jake. Come here." Marceline floats down into an empty armchair, motioning with her arms for Seth to come to her. Begrudgingly, Seth replies with her request and is met by being scooped into his mom's lap.

"I don't know what to do, Mommy." He puts his head on her shoulder, lying sprawled out across her lap.

"Why don't you just talk about what happened and we can work from there." Margret suggests.

"Well," Seth takes a deep breath, slowly letting it out. "Jake 'n I, we've been having problems because he can't keep up with me in spars. I've tried to be nice about it, subtly toning it down because it's a spar and even giving him advice or encouragement. I know that he knows the best thing to do isn't to compare us, but today he blew up. He said, 'I hate being in your shadow. I'll prove to you, and everyone else, that I can be awesome with just what makes me, me'."

"And what'd you do?" sighing and shaking his head, Joshua asks this.

"I told 'im. 'Look, man, we've all got trouble. Everybody has tried to help you. Nobody's downing you, or holding you back but you. I'd love for you get stronger. Heck, I'm making sure you do. Don't look at it as win and lose Jake, but how much you grow'."

Marceline smiles at just how mature he is. "That's good advice baby."

Seth nods in acknowledgement, but his features darken. "I thought so too; that always calms him down. Today, though, he blew up worse. 'I've had it with progress, I want power!' Finally, I snapped. 'Man, I'm done with your craziness! You don't want help, fine! Go do your own thing!' That's what I said."

Exasperatedly, Joshua sighs. "Sorry, Seth, but I guess my son's more bone-headed then I thought."

Seth gives his godfather a weak smile in a comforting gesture. "Not your fault, Uncle Josh. He just has to sort all his messed-up-head biz, and then it'll be okay. Blee-blah-bloop, right?"

Joshua chuckles weakly. "I hope so Seth, I really hope so."

"I know what'll cheer you up." Marceline says in an attempt to ease the tension in her son, and rubbing his shoulders. "How about you go on an adventure with Mommy, hmm?"

"Go on an adventure? Together?" Seth immediately perks up, nodding vigorously to his own question.

"Well alright, then." Marceline smiles just enough to barely show a hint of her fangs.

**00 Now 00**

The mother and son duo were currently on their way in the adventure. Seth was reading the map of the grasslands his mother had dug out of the Mystic Adventure Room for the quest, while she flew lazily beside him under her black cloak for protection from the afternoon sun.

Seth was dressed in his body armor and black bandana with the trench coat to conceal his carried weapons; his traditional on-duty garb. His broadswords were on his back in an 'x' formation, twin colt pistols in the deep side pockets of his coat, (The hip plate armor didn't allow for holsters) and the flaming dagger was tucked away in the side of his left boot. All the ammo, provisions, and whatever else, were in the beloved green pack Seth had slung over his right shoulder by a single strap. Marceline merely had her axe-bass slung on her back.

"Seventy-five…seventy-six…seventy-seven…seventy-eight…seventy-nine…eighty." Seth looks up from the map with a blank look at the dumb-looking rock. "So there's a dungeon under this thing?"

"What, do you doubt your mother?" Marceline says in a mock hurt tone.

Shaking his head, Seth replies with the blank look still in place. "No, I just don't understand the idea of this cameo."

"Come on, if you saw a dumb-looking rock, wouldn't you overlook it almost instantly? Or not even notice it to begin with?"

Indignant pout on his puffed out cheeks, Seth whirls to face her. "Assassin's Adventure Rule One: Be aware of all surroundings and notice the slightest change in wind to the smallest blade of grass shifting. Ninja Rule Thirteen: Look underneath the underneath. Hero Rule Three: Doubt nothing, be ready for anything, and always be getting in the enemy's mind biz."

Marceline does a slow clap, a smugly proud smirk on her face. "I taught you well, boy."

Seth gives a small nod in acknowledgment, before turning back to the rock. "Verstärken. **Reinforce.**"

His fist glows in a faint, white light, he takes an offensive speed stance, and with a small battle cry, punches the rock a few feet back. With a small 'humph', Seth jumps in the hole, his body straight with his arms crossed over his chest. Marceline flies in after him, watching as he does a back flip in mid-descent to take some momentum and twist his body to a head-first position. After doing two more back flips as the ground closes in, Seth skids to a stop on the dungeon floor and lands with his body turned sideways, his knees bent, crouched down, and his arms up defensively in case of ambush. Ten seconds pass as Marceline observes him carefully observing his surroundings. She lands with a click of her red boots on the stone floor next to him as he straightens up and gives the smallest of nods in her direction.

"Kommen Schwerter. **Come my swords**" Seth's voice is an inaudible whisper to anyone's ears but Marceline's as his swords fly from his back to his waiting hands.

Seth keeps them at ready in front of his chest, taking the similar 'x' formation as on his back. Marceline flicks her eyes to the direction off to the side that his head barely motions towards. The piles of burgers and hotdogs of various shapes and sizes near them giving off an immiscible aura of magical power. Without needing to wait for her silent order, Seth silently moves towards the clearly trapped food with caution. As he nears it, Marceline can tell they both catch the activating of the spell as the hotdogs' ketchup changes to mustard. Seth jumps back as the monsters rise and take notice of them.

Seth's face is the same deadly serious expression he wears during adventures, but Marceline sees the clear, faint flicker of fear in his blue eyes. He's never faced real monsters on his guarding adventures, but he's researched all the cataloged monsters and monster-raising spells in Marceline's library and practiced a little sparring with her in her various monster forms. She didn't allow too much of the latter, wanting for this to be a true test of his on the fly and intuitive skills.

Seth rushes forward, beginning the dance of a zigzagging pattern in blinding speed. As the Hotdog Monster's arm comes down to swat him, Seth leaps agilely onto the forearm.

"Verstärken! **Reinforce!**" With a push off his legs, Seth lands on the Hotdog Monster's shoulder and narrowly misses the arm meant to crush him. Seth's swords are drawn for a strike at the back of the monster's head. He suddenly freezes as his eyes fix on the spot he's meant to strike.

"Seth! Watch o-!" Marceline's warning is cut short as the Hamburger Monster rams a hand to slap the Hotdog Monster in the back of the head, he intends to knock Seth into the wall behind her. If it hadn't been for her Vampire Skills, the boy would have been embedded in the wall. Bouncing off her force field instead, he lands on the unforgiving ground back-first.

"Oomph!" All that escapes his mouth as he coughs is that.

"You okay Lil' Hero?" Seth smiles at the nickname as he unsteadily pushes himself to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry I froze up." He groans out weakly, forcing his body to straighten and pick up his fallen swords.

Seth charges again, though his speed is slightly impeded from the rough launch and landing. He dodges both arms and feet of the monsters with ease. This time he hops on the Hamburger Monster's foot, using reinforcement bursts in his legs to scale the thing's belly. With his swords at ready once again, Seth delves into both necks of the monster's right head and slices through them with ease. The last remaining head gives a cry of pain as the dead head falls to the ground. Though its cry is short-lived. As Seth repeats the action, and the now decapitated monster slumps to the ground.

"Verstärken! **Reinforce!**" Seth uses one final burst of reinforcement to his legs to rocket off the falling body.

With his swords put together and his body straight as a barreling arrow, Seth's strike hits home in-between the Hotdog Monster's eyes. As a great battle cry erupts from his throat, Seth uses his embedded swords to rip apart the monster's head from the inside out. Marceline winces, knowing he'll regret the gory action soon. Seth agilely jumps off the body, his bloody swords extended out at his sides like an eagles wings.

Marceline flies high to see him tuck and roll to the ground. He then keeps sprinting into a small entrance as the monsters' bodies fully crash, shaking the dungeon with a rumble. Marceline flies into the entrance shortly after, stopping to kick in the small entryway over a part of the Hotdog Monster's arm.

With a short double-snap of her fingers, a light blue flame appears in her open palm that she uses to ignite the arm. The sound of vomit spilling the ground and retching catches her attention. She's by her son's side and rubbing his back in a second, as he loses his big breakfast the hard way. When he finally finishes, he's significantly paler and raggedly panting with impossibly wide eyes.

Retrieving a clean rag and a bottle of water from his pack, Marceline wipes the sweat and puke from his face before making him rinse his mouth out. She hands him a peppermint, but has to stick it in his open mouth and force it closed. His eyes are blank and seemingly looking at nothing. He shakes like he's freezing, and he keeps incoherently mumbling. Without a word or thought of other lurking monsters, Marceline draws her baby into her lap and rocks him in her arms.

A silent eternity passes before he can find the courage to speak, but his voice is so desperately fragile and small. "M-Mommy…I…I killed. I took…I…"

"Shhh, Shhh, I know. Seth listen, those were monsters. Not people, honey, but monsters."

"What's it like…*gulps* to take the life of a person, then, Mommy?"

"The taking of a life is never easy. Though it's an act we must commit as heroes and heroines, son. You have to be ready to kill, be it defense or protection. You have to be ready to slay evil one villain at a time. That is how we grow as protectors; gaining experience with such things as well as strength. The stronger enemies and evils you vanquish, the greater the light of a savior and protector you will shine.

No matter what, Seth, always know the lines of good and evil. They can, at times, be blurred and crossed. Even so, you can always come back from one side to the other if you don't do so intentionally. Always remember that you always have a choice to be good or evil, and that is based solely on your actions and self-integrity. Evil isn't something that can be inherited in a soul, but something that grows in you by _your _choices in life. In that, it is the same as justice and good."

"S-so that's why Grandpa's evil and you're good?"

In this moment, Marceline wants nothing more then to take all the harsh realities he's seen and suck them out. She wants to pick him up, take him home, and pretend that he hasn't had to -or still does have to- experience any of the world's cruelty. She knows, however, that there never really was a choice for him. Not as her son, or as the last human. This is his calling, and the only way of life she can teach him. He's gifted, and in too deep to go back even if he could. Looking into those big, blue eyes, Marceline gives a solemn shake of her head.

"I can't tell you that Seth."

"Huh? I thought you locked him up 'cause he was bad. If he did bad things, he's evil, right?"

Marceline sighs deeply, giving another shake of her head. "He's done good things in his life too, Seth. Nobody can truly tell what side he's on, though he claims to live solely for chaos and evil. For that, people disregard any good, and brand him the Lord of Evil."

"What? Grandpa…"

"Yes Seth, Hunson Abadeer is the Lord of all Evil, King of Wicked and Chaos, and ruler of the demonic dimension known as the Nightosphere. The Nightosphere is his domain, and the place I locked him away, though for the good of Ooo…and my own selfishness."

"Mommy…" Seth whispers in awe, gapping at her in shock. "If…if you had your own reasons…then doesn't that mean you can't say you did it for good? It blurs the line…right?"

"It does, but that isn't to say it was entirely misjudged. I can't say for a sure thing, honestly. I wonder if it really was right, what I did."

"D-did you kill the Vampire King for good, then, Mommy?" Marceline winces at that.

"I killed the Vampire King…because he got in my way. I tried to kill my dad, even though he's deathless, and the Vampire King tried to stop me."

"Grandpa Hunson's fully immortal?"

"Yep, and so am I. Though, my half-demon blood wouldn't have kept me ageless. The vampirism did that, and it weakened me too."

"So it made you half-immortal by making you allergic to the sun?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Mommy, does Grandpa want you to take over the…Night-o-sphere? Like Bon-Bon will from Aunt Marge and Uncle Bubba? Because you're his…heir to it?"

"Uh-huh, but I…I refused. For more reasons then one. So, we aren't really on the best terms. I don't think we ever had a chance to be…but I'll tell you more when we get home, kay?"

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"Okay."

Satisfied for now, Seth crawls out of her lap and starts to clean his swords of hotdog brains. Once that's done, he gets up and slowly goes back to alertness.

"Hey Little Hero, I found something!" Marceline calls from the other side of the dungeon she took the liberty of checking out.

Marceline observes as he cautiously and silently makes his way over. She's prideful he doesn't throw caution to the wind without affirming safety for himself.

"Hmm, A hologram projector and a cartridge? I don't feel any magical energy. Should we play it, Mommy?"

"I don't see why not." Marceline says with a shrug.

She picks up the hologram projector, inserts the cartridge, and places it down again. In the typical pink and purple projection image, the Dog residence's den appears, and Joshua walks onto the screen.

"Uncle Joshua? What the fluff?"

"Hello," Hologram Joshua intones. "If you're seeing this pre-recorded hologram message, it means you have currently passed through the first trial of my personally built dungeon."

"What, Uncle Josh built this? Cool!"

"Congratulations, to whoever you may be. If you are merely a wandering adventurer get out now, for you will die."

Seth and Marceline's neck hairs stand erect. Without looking at each other they bite their left thumbs, slam their hands together, and turn the left so it is at a ninety degree angle with the right, but still touching.

"Schutz! **Protect!**"

"However, there are few who know the real purpose of this dungeon. If you were able to protect yourselves from the magic trap, you are one of them and are safe.

"Secret hmm, No wonder he did that."

"At the end of this dungeon rests my Demon-Blood sword." Josh takes a sword from the mantle above the fireplace, displaying it proudly.

In a burst of smoke beside Joshua, the demon that both Marceline and Seth recognize as Kee Oth appears. "Joshua, give me back my demon blood! I demand you return it, or by Demon's Law I will-"

"Kee Oth Rama Pancake." Joshua enchants, turning to Kee Oth and waving his hand. As the spell finishes, Kee Oth erupts in flames and screams in agony as he vanishes.

"Cool!" Seth says with envy.

Joshua turns back to them. "If you know of this, then at the end of this dungeon you may have my blessing to claim the sword as your own. Good luck." And the message ends.

"Mommy, _that's _why you brought me here?! Cool. Cool!" Seth starts jumping down on his tiptoes hyperactively, his eyes wide with elation and anticipation.

Marceline laughs at the display of his child-like nature, putting a hand on his head to keep him still. "Calm down you weenie! Yes, that's why I brought you. This is all a test, to see if you're ready for this and ready for the sword. You'll be a true adventurer, then and only then."

Seth adopts a smile of fiery determination. "I'm ready, I'll prove it and get that sword!" He does a fist pump.

"We'll see, Lil' Hero, we'll see." Seth nods, and puts the hologram projector and cartridge in his pack. "Now, I found two different paths to continue." His mom leads him exit stage right. "This way's a flower portal…path-thing, and that way…has, um, him." Marceline points to the green monster…thing in the dark path and Seth sticks out his tongue, flinching in disgust.

"Um, yeah…let's take the Flowery Path."

"Agreed." They go to turn into the path.

"Wait!" The monster calls out, causing them to turn curiously. "Why don't you want to take my path?" It asks dejectedly.

"Dude, you are mega-disgusting. Take a dang bath once in a while and people will want to take your path more, kay?" Seth tries to give a non-disgusted smile.

"Oh…thanks for the tip." The monster says happily, not taking note of the forced smile or harshness of the statements.

As they walk down the Flower Path, Marceline playfully smacks Seth upside the head. "I taught you well in more ways then one, I guess. I could've been a lot meaner."

"Thanks Mommy. Man though, that thing was gross!"

Marceline laughs. "Yeah." They both laugh. Then Seth gets serious, hearing laughter up ahead.

They reach the end of the path, coming to a table spread with fruit and seeing three floating ladies above it. The ladies are recognizable with their yellow cat-eyes and green skin. Marceline and Seth share a knowing look. Marceline picks Seth up, flies over the table, ignoring the Fruit Witches, and flies over to the wall at the end of the trial with him. Seth gives her a questioning look when they stop.

"Mommy?"

"I know it won't be pretty, but you have to get comfortable with killing. Watch me, Seth."

"O-Okay." He immediately pales.

"Also, try as hard as you can to not puke. That will make seeing it get easier." Marceline advises as she takes the axe-bass off her back.

Seth nods, watching her fly off towards the target, and visibly steels himself. Marceline slashes the long-haired brunette witch from her shoulder to hip. She lets the body fall with her guts spilling out of the gash for Seth to see, smirking as she hears his muffled gagging.

Swinging the axe over her right shoulder, she decapitates the one with short-cropped black hair. The long-haired blondie wises up, though and evades Marceline's onslaught of blows with speed alone.

"Kommen von meinem Blut. **Come by my blood. **Kommen meinen Bogen, und kommen mein Pfeil! **Come my bow, and come my arrow!**"

Marceline skids to a halt. Surprised when an arrow lodges itself in her nearing targets chest, the vampire looks over to see Seth holding his still-glowing bow, the string bloody. His face is pale, but he hasn't thrown up and his expression is serious.

"Nice one, Lil' Hero!" Seth nods in acknowledgement, lowering the bow.

Marceline slings the axe-bass back onto her back, not caring about the blood. Scooping Seth into her arms without stopping her flight of a moderately fast pace as she nears him. Seth silently dismisses his bow while they easily scale the fifty-foot wall. Once Seth's feet touch the ground, he crashes into Marceline's arms from a lack of balance and clamps both hands over his mouth as bile rises in his throat.

"Whoa! Easy baby what's…Oh, you nauseous?" Seth nods, swallowing the bile back down and taking calming breaths through his nose. "Breathe out through your mouth, Seth." Seth only nods again.

After a minute, Seth moves his hands away and stands on his own feet again. "I'm good, uh, you got another mint?"

"In your pack, you sure you okay?"

Seth starts digs through his pack, retrieves the mint canister, pops one in his mouth, and replaces the canister and pack on his back. "Yeah, I'm alright Mommy." He says around the mint.

Marceline gives a small smile, looking around the new dungeon chamber. "It looks like we gotta slide down this." She observes, gesturing to the slanted ramp.

"Cool." Seth gets in-between his mom's legs as she sits down at the top and pats her legs. "Can't you fly?" He looks up at her.

Marceline shrugs. "I like stuff like this sometimes; it makes me feel more like you." She pokes him on the nose and gives him a kiss on the forehead.

Seth giggles. "M'kay." They push off and slide down fast, giggling once they reach the bottom. "That was fun!"

Before Seth has a chance to crawl away, Marceline slowly snakes her arms around him, hugging him close from behind. "And so is this," is the only warning to her son before she starts tickling him.

"M-Mommy…Ahahaha! Mommy…haha! Stop it!" He squirms and kicks out of her lap, but not her fingers' reach.

"What's the magic word?" She sweetly sing-songs the evil question. She ends up changing positions to pin him under her thighs as she leans over, her hair falling around them like a midnight curtain.

"P-Please!" He gasps out between laughing fits.

"No~" She tickles him a little harder.

"Uncle! Uncle…I hahaha! I-I give!" He cries through his laughter induced tears.

"Sorry, try again." She mumbles against his neck before giving him a raspberry on the weak point.

"Mommy! I-I'm going to pee!" He cries as his face starts turning a dark beet-red.

"Whoa! Okay, okay. Don't pee on me, thanks." The Vampire Queen immediately jumps off the boy, who's clutching his sides in pain as the laughter finally dies down. As soon as he can breathe again, Seth runs off to a corner to go to the bathroom.

"Whoa you, uh, weren't kidding. Sorry Seth." The vampire runs a finger sheepishly over her cheek as Seth comes back over.

"It's okay; I can't really hold it against you with you _bringing me to get a demon-blood sword_." Just like that, the childish excitement is back in his eyes. They're shining with the stars of the night sky.

"Geez," Marcie moans. "How is it you can be such an adorable dork and awesome all at once?" She pulls his bandana over his eyes, earning an indignant 'hey'.

"I'm adorkable because I'm an awesome kid. I'm awesome because I'm your son, Seth Abadeer!" He does a cute fist pump after fixing his bandana.

"Adorkable?" Marceline raises an eyebrow.

"An adorable dork. A-dorkable." He waves his arms for emphasis and Marcie pokes him lightly in the gut.

"No making up words that I would say before I do." She says in a false chiding tone.

"Jealous~ Ow!" He's interrupted in his gloating when his mom pinches his cheeks. He slaps her hand away. "You know I hate that." He says flatly.

Marceline just sticks out her forked tongue at him. He rolls his eyes. "You are the first guy I've ever known to do that."

"Huh? Random much?" He questions, crossing his arms with a smirk.

"I mean that sarcastic eye roll, weenie." She does one of her own. For demonstration or out of habit we can't know. "Only girls do that. You're the first boy I know to do it too."

"Again, random much?" He can't help but crack a cocky grin.

"Whatever, look there's another cartridge over there" She points to a cartridge near the wall. Seth digs out the hologram projector from his pack as he walks over. Waiting for Marceline before popping in the video, they sit down to watch it.

Joshua appears like last time. He's in front of a wall with shovels and bricks surrounding him. The wall looks nearly finished.

"Hello again. If you're seeing this, it means you've made it past the fruit witches. Nice job. Now, behind me is the final stage to the dungeon, where the boss and my sword await a worthy challenger. The boss is a really big, evil monster I've put in this pit I'm digging. He's nasty, so be careful and good luck." The message ends, and goes into Seth's pack with the hologram projector.

"Ready Seth?"

"Born ready, Mommy. Although, I should probably use my spear for this." He says, putting his swords in their sheathes on his back

"Hmm, good idea." Marceline grabs her axe-bass off her back. "What, you think I'd let you go up against a boss alone? This may be a test, but I'm not risking you dying." She smirks at his confused face.

Seth nods, biting the index finger of his left hand before connecting his index and middle fingers and the thumbs of both hands by the tips. He turns his right index and middle fingers counterclockwise to face him and his left clockwise to point at Marceline, his thumbs still touching at the tips.

"Kommen von meinem Blut. **Come by my blood.** Kommen meine Speer. **Come my spear.**" In a flash of white light, Seth's beloved blue spear appears inches in front of his hands. "Did I mention how much I love summoning spells, or magic in general?" He eagerly takes the spear in his left hand, the blood leaking through his thin gloves leaking onto his spear shaft.

"Yes, many times. Nice to get a reminder every now and again though."

"When we get back, do you think Uncle Josh will teach me any spells that go with the sword?"

"Oh, confident are we?"

"Yep."

"Dunno, but probably."

"Cool, let's go."

Seth crawls through the hole in the wall army-style, knocking a bigger hole in the wall with his spear for Marceline to crawl through with the same ease. Seth's eyes go wide once they land on the blood-red sword embedded in the crystal stone and chains. It's illuminated by an ethereal light shining down on it.

"Neat huh?" Marceline comments, seeing her son's awe-filled gaze. Seth nods, transfixed. "Come on, the boss is probably near it."

Seth snaps out of it and follows his mother cautiously to the sword. As they near it, both of their danger senses tingle. On instinct, they both jump to avoid the sweeping of giant and long, blue hands. As a high-pitched, evil crackle fills the air, they both tense. Due to their night vision and the faint illumination, both mother and son can clearly make out the giant monster amerced in shadows.

"Whoa…he's big-wha!" Seth jumps back to avoid the hand meant to squash him. He jabs the spear into the monster's hand, using the momentum to launch himself closer to the beast and simultaneously rip his spear out. "Erweitern! **Extend!**" As his spear extends to its full five-meter length, Seth frantically repels the rapid onslaught of smacks from the monster's hands. Frantically jumping and ducking the massive arms of the monster as well.

"Seth, drop down!" Seth follows the command instantly as the arm of the monster whizzes by his head. The next thing he hears is the monster's deafening scream of pain and a loud thud as something falls. "Seth!"

In a split second, the boy's on his feet. He sees the monster's wrist spewing blood, his hand missing, and his mom sitting on the ground a few feet away. She's covered, hopefully, in the monster's blood. "Mommy!"

"I'm fine! Seth, his weakness is his eye! I'm going to Vampire Launch you to it and you've gotta stab it in the center with your spear, got it?"

"Right!"

Seth quickly does a series of back flips, putting distance between him and the monster. The monster can't attack now, using its only hand to hold it up in the presumably bottomless pit.

"Seth!" On command he stops flipping and lands on his feet in a crouch, his spear thrown to the side.

"Ready!" He shouts, his hands held up to the sky and open.

In a blur, his mother's form flies above him and he's pulled off the ground at a whiplashing speed. She let's go and flings him with her strength. The second she lets go, Seth extends his left hand, straightens his body like a flying arrow, and silently sends a burst of reinforcement to his feet to propel himself faster.

"Kommen meine Speer! **Come my spear!**" In a second his spear has flown to his waiting hand, still fully extended. Seth extends it at full arms-length, both hands on the shaft. "Streik wahr! **Strike True!**" The spear begins glowing a bright blue at the command, gathering wind at the bladed tip to give off the impression of a shooting star.

With a great battle cry tearing from his throat and a simultaneous cry of pain from the monster, Seth's spear hits the eye dead center in an explosive flash of blinding light. The light engulfs everything and, for a moment, Seth wonders if he's died. The thought is quickly overrun with fear as blood in a powerful stream drenches him and he gets the intense feeling of falling, seeing nothing but blackness. Suddenly something searing-hot slams into him from the side, two screams ringing out as one as he's jerked upwards at a terrifying pace and roughly dropped to the ground.

The only sense telling him he's still alive is the fact he still grips his spear so tightly his knuckles feel as if they're ready to burst. Seth only wishes to let the inviting darkness of unconsciousness take him but a ragged moan next to him suddenly snaps him wide awake with a single screaming terror.

"MOMMY! MOMMY WHERE ARE YOU?!" He sits bolt-right up, looking frantically around him.

_The light! How could I be so stupid?! Mommy's allergic to intense heat and sunlight! I'd say that blast was like her being _next_ to the dang sun alright! Idiot! Idiot! _His mental cursing stops as weak sounds hits his sensitive ears.

"Seth…I…"

"MOMMY!" Seth crawls frantically over to the now spotted, burned body of his mother. "I'm here, Mommy. I'm so, _so _sorry! I-I wasn't thinking!" He says through the pouring tears he can't stop.

"Seth…heal…me…"

"Right!" Frantic and with shaking hands, Seth puts his hands over his mother's stomach. "Ich bin ein Heiler des Himmels. **I am a Healer of Heaven**." As the white glow emanates from his shaking palms, he pours more magical energy then he ever has into anything into the incantation. He repeats it over and over, and he doesn't quit until his world begins to spin.

"Seth, stop it…Too much…energy. Stop."

His mom definitely looks a whole lot better, but not fully healed. Her own regeneration is painfully slow. All of her skin is pink, and red in patches. Most of the blisters are not even gone, though infinitely better then the black charred globs they were.

"You're right; it'd be really bad if I passed out now. We've gotta get you somewhere safe, who knows what else is here…know any tele-"

"No…not enough…energy to."

"I- *sighs* right, okay. What do we do?"

"Get…sword, Seth."

"Sword? Mommy, the demon-blood sword don't ma-"

"Get it."

"Okay, Mommy. Stay here."

Seth stands, dizziness takes hold, but he manages to stay on his feet. Stumbling over to the crystal stone with spear in hand, Seth slashes at the chains binding the sword. With both hands griping the blood-red hilt and both feet planted on the crystal, Seth uses all his strength to pull the sword free. He stumbles back, falling with a thud to the ground as the sword falls from his grasp. He picks himself, and his weapons, up before stumbling numbly over to his mother.

"I got it, Mommy, what now?"

"Bug milk…happy…face…in dirt."

"Uh…draw a happy face in the dirt, right?"

"Yes…"

Seth walks about a foot from his mother, drawing a simple smiley face in the dirt with the sword; two dots and a big 'U' in a circle all the way around where he stands. He walks back to his mother, rifling through his bag for bug milk.

"I've got it, but the bug milk busted on everything. There's only a little bit left."

"Douse…face."

"Pour it on the happy face?"

"Yes…chant… MALOSO….VOBISCUM….ET CUM…SPIRITUM…"

"Mommy? Mommy, stay with me, kay? MALOSO VOBISCUM ET CUM SPIRITUM, that it?"

"Uh…huh…"

"Okay, okay. Just stay awake, Mommy. Hold on a little longer, kay?" Seth pushes the pack underneath her head as a pillow, clears the distance to the circle in two strides, and slams down the carton. "MALOSO VOBISCUM ET CUM SPIRITUM! **Evil be with you and your soul!**"

The smiley face glows red, the ground lightly rumbles, and immediately begins cracking apart. Seth dives next to his mother, grabbing his spear and new sword. Suddenly the face splits apart, revealing fiery flames into the dungeon chamber. A shadowy essence rises up along with the flames. It shifts into guts and bones, forming a skeleton, skin, and clothes…A man in a dark suit and red boots appears.

"W-who a-are y-y-y-you?" Seth cowers in fear at the overwhelming aura, not evil but dark, potent and powerful.

"Who am I? I am the Lord of Evil child! Do you understand what that means?"

"G-G-Grandpa Hunson?!" Seth's eyes bulge, his weapons drop, and his mouth hits the ground, followed by with his knees.

"What?" The man mirrors his surprise, but not as heavily.

"Daddy…." Both the boy and man snap their heads in the injured vampire's direction.

-"Marcie!" Hunson is echoed by Seth.

-"Mommy!" Seth cries the same time as Hunson.

Seth absentmindedly grabs his weapons as Hunson teleports -yes teleports- in shadowy essence to Marceline's side.

"What happened to you? Wait, where are we? What's going on?" These questions are rapid fire as Hunson gently lifts his daughter's head into his arms.

"Help…Daddy….need…fixed up…"

"Okay baby, okay. Daddy's here sweetie."

"…Seth…"

"Who?" Hunson asks.

"I'm here, Mommy."

"Wha- Mommy?!" Hunson looks to his daughter in disbelief.

"Yes…Seth…follow your…Grand…pa…" Marceline slips into unconsciousness in her father's arms.

Seth and Hunson look to each other, unsure what to do. "Okay…c'mon, kid." Hunson gets up and carries Marceline to the edge of the circle, looking at the boy blankly.

Seth scurries to grab his pack before following Hunson to the circle. Hunson raises a brow in question, but just shakes his head and motions with his eyes for Seth to step into the fiery circle. Seth gulps, shuts his eyes tight, and takes three steps forward while holding his breath.

"You can open your eyes and breathe now, kid. Not that you had to in the first place, but…" Seth opens his eyes and sucks in a big breath.

He looks around. The room is all red and seems to be made of rock. The couch and other furniture is a lighter red then the rock and a giant window is on the wall in front of Seth, seemingly just a hole in the wall. His grandpa lies his mom on the couch, so it has to be normal furniture and not rocks like the room.

"Grandpa…is this place a cave?" Seth is observing the pictures on the wall, so he doesn't see Hunson flinch at the name. They're of Hunson, and a few with his mom.

"Uh, yeah kid. C'mon in the kitchen, we have some talking to do."

"What about medicine for Mommy?"

"Uh, we're goanna let Marcie sleep for a little while, kid."

Seth follows the man into a plain blue kitchen with a white and blue tiled floor. He takes a seat at the small breakfast table, while Hunson leans against the counter. Hunson tries to avert his gaze to anything, but his eyes still settle on the boy in front of him. Seth gets a good look at his grandpa; the skin a darker blue then his mom's, same black hair as her but shaved close to his head, and the same pointy ears. Seth is guessing by his boots that they share a somewhat similar fashion sense with his mom.

"So kid-"

"Seth."

"Huh?"

"My name is Seth, Seth Abadeer." Hunson's eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

"Abadeer huh? Humph, guess you are my grandson. Well…Seth you smell almost human, but you have magic and if you're Marcie's kid-"

"I am human, Grandpa. The _last _human. Mommy adopted me." Seth smiles as Hunson gaps like a fish. "Wanna here my story?"

Hunson nods, taking a seat adjacent Seth. His interest is obviously peaked. So Seth tells him everything. From living in the dump he can't remember how he got to, to learning in the shadows of the city, and running from the violent people. He explains how he knows now why they were like they were, nearly killing him out of the simple fear that he was a monster for looking different. He explains the day he nearly died by their hands, his mom saving him, and waking up to the first day of the rest of his life in what he learned was his Aunt Marge's lab.

He beams with pride saying how his mom told him his real name. He explains the last three years of living, learning, and meeting new people with his mom. He then tells his grandpa about the adventure, getting Uncle Josh's sword, and were it all went wrong.

"I see. That was a very stupid mistake Seth."

"I know…I never meant to…to hurt Mommy….I just-"

"Wasn't thinking?"

"Yeah." Seth studies his hands, clasped on the tabletop.

Hunson sighs deeply. "She'll be okay, kid. It just mi-"

"Wait! The Cyclopes' magic tears! They'll heal her no probs! Grandpa, can you come home with me real fast?"

"What? Why? Slow down kid!"

"We have a bottle or two of some magic tears from a Cyclops eye that can heal any semi-closed injury instantly! They're at the Tree Fort, where we live." Seth says, rolling his eyes impatiently.

"Why didn't you think of that sooner?" Hunson jumps up opening a portal to the main room of the Tree Fort.

"Hey, a lot's happened! Cut me some dang slack, Grandpa!"

Seth runs through the portal and dashes up the stairs, Hunson quickly follows. The Lord of Evil watches impressed as his grandson makes it through the maze of bars with cat-like grace and lightning speed. Instead of following suit, Hunson merely puffs into a shadow next to where he senses his grandson to be. He sees him rifling through cabinets in a counter, pulling out a large, silver pot.

"What are you doing, kid?"

"It's Seth, and we don't have a lot of the medicine so I'm stretching it. Mom taught me a few medical recipes that go with the tears. Carry this." Seth shoves the pot Hunson's way, and he sees it's filled with various, wrapped up and light foods (mostly red stuff) and a few bottles of water.

_Who is this kid? To think he's got the nerve to-_

"It's for Mommy! Just do it!" Seth doesn't even look at him.

"What're you a-"

"Mind reader? As far as you know, yes."

_Yeah, he's definitely Marcie's son._

"You got that right."

Seth opens the door to the kitchen, leading to the bridge. Without waiting for Hunson, Seth barrels into the bathroom and grabbing all of the medical and toiletry supplies he can think of off the top of his head. Tossing them into two giant, paper shopping bags, and thrusting them into Hunson's arms. Seth charges into his mother's room to grab two changes of clothes and her journal.

Tossing the clothes in a small overnight bag, throwing it at Hunson, and rampaging out once more. Seth grabs two small tomes and the corked bottles of Cyclops Magic Tears from the Mystic Adventure Room, along with all the most commonly used herbs in the house for injuries and burns. He stops by his own room to grab another two sets of clothes and his hats. Once back in the family room, Seth stops as if thinking.

He grabs the holographic projector/ T.V (portable when off), three movies, two books, and a board game. He stops once more before grabbing a box of crayons and a sketch pad, cramming all this in his freshly cleaned pack with his clothes. Seth digs his house key out of his pack as they walk outside, inserting the key in the lock.

"Bewachen diesen Ort. **Protect this place.** Schutz.** Protection.**" He turns and locks the house with the enchantments and key, the doorknob glowing faintly. "Let's go."

"Heh, not bad Seth. Marcie really has taught you well."

"Mommy says the same thing." Seth steps through the portal to the kitchen with his grandpa. "So care to share your story Grandpa?"

"Huh?" Hunson turns to face the casually leaning boy lounging against the doorframe as he sets his load on the counter. Seth comes up and they begin preparing all the medicine and some food for their patient

"I said; I'd like to hear your story. I shared mine, it's your turn. Mommy's told me some about you. She said today that she can't tell whether her locking you away was good or bad because she had her personal reasons for it. She can't tell whether _you _are good or evil."

"Wha'da ya mean, course I'm evil! I'm the _Lord _of Evil for Pete's sake! Li-"

"Living solely for chaos and evil." Seth finishes for him in a bored tone. "Mommy said you'd say that. And it's because you say that, that everybody brands you as pure evil. Evil and good are the same in that they are determined through the choices and actions one takes. Evil cannot be inherited by the soul, and the lines between the two can sometimes be blurred. Though, it is easy to cross from one side to the other, you can always go back so long as you did not cross by choice.

That's why Mommy and I are good, and not evil. She said you have done good things in your life, Grandpa. I want to hear your story and determine for myself whether you are good or evil."

"Oh? What's it going to change, little boy? What's it going to do whether you brand me good or evil by such standards? Ridiculous standards, I might add." Hunson's hands go to his hips as he glares down at the little boy. Seth's eyes turn serious, cold, and hateful as he glares right back.

"Those ridiculous standards are word for word your daughter's sole belief and only justice in such a messed up world, Grandpa. The only peace she has knowing she won't turn out like the daddy that abandoned her in a ruined city of a war-torn world."

"What?!" Seth smirks ruefully.

"Mommy doesn't know I know that last part. I did a little digging around in some old junk and found stuff with Mommy as a kid and this Simon Petrikov guy. He wrote her some songs she kept over the years. I went to Aunt Marge and she told me all about you leaving your seven-year-old daughter to die two weeks and three days after her human mother died.

Simon, or should I say Ice King, found her and protected her in his last weeks of sanity. He left her after going completely crazy from the crown he wears influence, and from there Mommy traveled around Ooo for twelve years, found you again, fought you, locked you away _and _killed the Vampire King after he got in her way of trying to kill you. He bit her before he died, turning her into the Vampire Queen we know now. Mommy spent the rest of the time traveling, meeting and watching new people die, and running from Simon and her past.

It was all because of you. I won't judge your soul's integrity for it, though that definitely made you lose some cred in my book. I'll be honest Grandpa, you scare the heck outta me. Your aura doesn't feel evil, but strong. So, what would someone with all that power be so dang afraid of? So afraid that he abandons the last link to a lady I would think he loved?"

"You've got it twisted, kid." Hunson denies, turning his back on his grandson.

Seth laughs bitterly. "Do I? Then tell me the truth."

By now, the two have a full pot of water with the Cyclops Tears and supplementing healing remedies for a strong mixture onto boil. They have all the food put away, and all the empty jars and stuff cleaned up. Seth leaves the kitchen with the medical and toiletry supplies and the extra stuff grabbed from the house.

"Where's Mommy's bedroom?"

Hunson sighs. "Upstairs, third door to your left."

He hears the boy tread up the stairs, and a door softly opening and closing a moment later. After about five minutes, the door opens and closes again. Seth reappears in the kitchen after setting his backpack in the living room.

"You don't have to share everything, or even now. But I _will _hear that story, and within the year." Seth's voice and face are blank, but Hunson hears the underlying threat in that promise.

"Or what?" Hunson challenges. "Ya know, boy, you're _really _starting to push your luck here."

Seth snorts. "Really? You touch me, old man, and it's just another pull on the already fraying thread." He glares coldly once again.

"What?"

Seth rolls his eyes. "It's another hit to your and Mommy's relationship. She only had me call you because she needed help. Once she's better, she could just as easily lock you up like she did the first time. If not easier, with the Vampire King gone." Seth turns to fully face his grandfather. "And I'mma make sure that Mommy gets better. We both know you'd do nothing to hurt her in the state she's in. Then again, maybe you would-"

"HOW DARE YOU!"

"NO! How dare you Grandpa! It's your fault anything bad ever happened to Mommy in the first place! Maybe her state now is my fault, but don't dare stand there and say you aren't the cause for everything else bad in her life!

You left her, bore her so she'd be an immortal forced to watch those she loved die in front of her, pushed her into that jerk Ash's arms, you're trying to push her into something she doesn't want, and you made her fight her own dad just so she could be free! Do you think she wanted to lock you away? I saw the hurt in her eyes as she talked; you gave her no choice because of all the stuff you pulled.

I'm a lot smarter then I look and I pick up on more then I let on to even Mommy. You could say she taught me too well. Either way, I'm watching you. You don't like what I've said, well then, let's see if you can change my opinion. One year Grandpa, and _don't _lie to me. I think you've seen enough to know I can read lies from truth. What you leave out I'll merely connect the pieces myself.

I don't want you to be an enemy, Grandpa. I do love you, but I will defend my Mommy from anybody who dares harm her. The life promise I made the day I swore to be an adventurer, a hero, was that I would those closest to my heart first, no matter my duty." With that, Seth walks out of the kitchen and leaves a stunned Hunson to his thoughts.

"That kid is going to be scarier then me when he grows up. Holy cow."

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A/N: Yeah! Finished this chapter! I thoroughly enjoyed writing the dungeon adventure and the part with Seth and Hunson. I know some of you might think I'm bashing Hunson, but he's a total freaking douche!

I hinted at this in the first chapter but here's my theory:

He obviously left Marceline in that city because what would a seven-year-old be doing there otherwise? And she was crying, like all kids do when they're left alone in a strange place. (If she was left on her own earlier she'd be used to danger and not crying. Also she probably wouldn't have survived.) Has abandonment written all over it and it'd explain what happened to Marcie's mom since she was human. (Because Marcie was only half-demon _before _being a vampire as seen in the episodes Finn the Human and Jake the Dog)

As for why there's a lot more magic stuff then in the show, If you can't tell this is supposed to be a more serious AU of the show, where fighting and stuff is more...no-cartoony I guess. Don't get me wrong I love the show, but they play it a little too fast and loose with the fighting sequences and magical theroies for my tastes

Now as for those numbers in parentheses; those are my little foot note numbering things. So I copied and pasted the shotcuts to the photos on here:

1 Seth's body armor (Top because I couldn't find a bottom half but you have the descrition)-

imgres?start=117&um=1&rls= %3Aen-us&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=418&tbm=isch&tbnid=sTacbNA3mmJmDM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fshop. .uk% &docid=iauC6RSO04zNQM&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fshop. .uk%2Fekmps%2Fshops%2Fandyhutch%2Fimages% &w=599&h=600&ei=R1DXUryHBqn_yQHmroGoDg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=9286&page=12&ndsp=12&ved=0CE0QrQMwGDhk

2 Seth's trench coat-

imgres?start=105&um=1&rls= %3Aen-us&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=418&tbm=isch&tbnid=VXCLTtWeRGZOxM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2Fburlingtoncoatfactory%2FWomen%2FPlus% &docid=xYfoXiNkK-0kUM&itg=1&imgurl=http%3A%2F% . .com%2FFileLibrary%2F7ba5b3c1b58e4e838cee84d2e2ab741f%2FBCF160768162_L_ &w=800&h=800&ei=tE3XUvyADPSEygGIpYCIBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=6976&page=10&ndsp=12&ved=0CCwQrQMwDThk

3 Seth's bandana-

imgres?start=162&um=1&rls= %3Aen-us&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=418&tbm=isch&tbnid=Lmz-AK0tuS7FbM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2Fbhp%2Fpirate-bandana&docid=K4wzMx3QZahhxM&imgurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2Fd%2Fl225%2Fm% &w=225&h=225&ei=Ok_XUvvsLuL4yQHJpIDoDw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=933&page=16&ndsp=10&ved=0CMIBEK0DMD84ZA

4 Seth's swords with one of their sheathes-

imgres?um=1&rls= %3Aen-us&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=418&tbm=isch&tbnid=AcOyS8qSxaq9sM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F% % &docid=pGNOs1jg1ftmyM&imgurl=http%3A%2F% %2Fimages%2Fweapons% &w=240&h=240&ei=RE7XUqe6IKbmyQGqq4CABQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=2158&page=1&start=0&ndsp=9&ved=0CGgQrQMwBg

5 Seth's spear- Just think of Lancer from Fate Zero's short spear normally, and his long one when extended only they're blue in color.

6 One of Seth's guns (Couldn't find twin picture of the same one)-

imgres?um=1&rls= %3Aen-us&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=418&tbm=isch&tbnid=dfiKPw8LKyja5M%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2F2010%2F05%2Fumarex-usa-22-lr-colt-government-1911-series%2F&docid=mcHUSV2FGywKIM&imgurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F05% &w=450&h=289&ei=rk7XUsb3GYWCyQGG14GADA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=3202&page=1&start=0&ndsp=7&ved=0CFgQrQMwAA

7 Seth's bow-

imgres?um=1&sa=X&rls= %3Aen-us&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=418&tbm=isch&tbnid=h0RO9C0AKx_OrM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2F3d-models%2F3d-recurve-bow-v2%2F578430&docid=A-BViYDIjidZhM&imgurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2FPreview%2F2011%2F01%2F04_14_38_17%2FRecurve_Bow_V2_ &w=600&h=600&ei=akvXUsLlDoz8yAHJ9oCIBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=7847&page=1&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=0CFYQrQMwAA

8 The language is German

9 Seth's dagger-

imgres?um=1&rls= %3Aen-us&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=418&tbm=isch&tbnid=wawOVCv3SmCvbM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2F2008%2F12% &docid=0rPN0fsJ8LoV0M&imgurl=http%3A%2F% .com%2F2moons%2Fimages%2Fitem%2Fweapon%2Fdagger%2F02_01_17_ &w=400&h=500&ei=oEzXUsWsJenOyQGG8IGAAg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=1134&page=6&start=45&ndsp=8&ved=0CO4BEK0DMDE

Hope you enjoyed! Don't know how long it'll be before my next chapter, which was why this one was so long.


	3. Urgent AN Please Read!

Hey, sorry I've been gone for so long. I also apologize to all who thought this was an actual chapter. Third and finally I must just apologize. I'm afraid I'll be leaving this story for now. Have no fear, I _**WILL **_be back to continue work on this.

The truth is that I'm putting all of my other in progress stories on a temporary hiatus to focus on my currently growing Naruto Fanfiction work called "The Choice: Altered." Trying to focus on any other story right now is nothing but a fantasy in all honesty. This story is taking all of my free time and creativeness, so, once again I'm afraid I must apologize.

Until I get to a decent stopping point in that story I'm not so much as touching my other stories. If I had to guess, I'd give this a two month to, more realistically, a four month-hiatus. I'm hating having to make you all wait, but I'd rather come back with a kick-butt chapter then trying to continue to spread myself too thin and give you guys half-baked crap, or nothing at all.

Please forgive me and I thank you all in advance for your kindness and patience. I also thank your support for this story. So I'll see you all in two to four months, and be ready for the latter being the more likely return point.

Ja, ne!


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